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Wlaf1450Leadership Campbell County donates food and funds to Food Life Services
A NOTE FROM THE GRAND ON CENTRAL: “There is so much good going on in our community, and I want to share all this good with you every Monday here on WLAF in hopes that you will start your week in a grand way making each week a Grand Week,” said Olivia Lobertini, owner of The Grand on Central.
By Charlotte Underwood
LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- The Leadership Campbell County 2025-2026 Class donated more than $5,000 as well as a trailer load of nonperishable food and canned goods to Food Life Services on Thursday morning. Class members also spent the first part of the day volunteering at the food pantry and organizing what they had donated to be ready for use.
According to Leadership Campbell County 2025-2026 Chairman MelishA Willis, and other leadership board members, “this year’s class did an outstanding job planning, organizing, and working together to pull off what may be the best class project yet. Through their hard work and dedication, they raised food donations along with an amazing $5,525 monetary donation for Food Life Services.”
Willis, who volunteered at Food Life Services in the past, said the organization holds a special place in her heart.
“Out of all the class projects they could have done, I am really touched that they picked this one, they have done phenomenal and don’t know the lives they have probably touched by doing this,” Willis said. She thanked class members for ‘showing up and making this leadership class a success.”
Class members also spent the first part of Thursday volunteering on-site at Food Life Services, working “firsthand to support the mission and serve our community.”
Food Life Services Treasurer Barb Klosterman said this donation was phenomenal and the pantry was thankful for the blessing.
“Campbell County Food Life Services is so blessed by the Campbell County Leadership group that chose us out of the whole community to help collect canned goods and solicit donations, we just can’t thank them enough; thank you, thank you, thank you!” Klosterman said. She said a $5,525 monetary donation would purchase a little more than a truck’s worth of food, which equals a month of cans for roughly 900 bags of food to give out to families.”
She said the money coming right now was especially important as the need in the area was on the rise.
“The need has grown, the last year and a half, our average was 125 to 150 every week and now we are getting 225 to 275 people every week and we are also seeing a lot more homeless, so we try to have items like the pop tops canned goods, to make it easy to eat or like sometimes, Food Lion will give us the chicken from the deli, so it is already cooked, because some of these people don’t have a way to cook anything.” Klosterman said.
She went over some details about the food pantry, which started in 1993.
“So, this food pantry has been in Campbell County for 33 years. Since the inception of the pantry, it has had $769,000 in contributions, but it has spent $1,617,000.00 for food, so we really rely on donations … we really count on neighbors and donations to help get things going and keep things going… People depend upon us,” Klosterman said.
From last June until January 31st, the pantry provided food to 6,672 households.
Food Life Services is open every Tuesday. During which time, it served 7,787 adults age 18-59, and 4,226 seniors over 60 years old. Children up to age 17 saw 3,870 served.
“We see seniors as a big part of who relies on us, 52 percent of our clients are on SNAP benefits,” Klosterman said.
She went over some examples of what the pantry spends on food, buying it from Second Harvest Food Bank.
“Last year, what we paid for food, and we buy most of our food from Second Harvest, was about $54,000. We have other expenses, just like any company, you have cleaning and utilities – we used to have volunteers that could drive and get the food and bring it, but we have contract employees now, because people need to be paid because of the times and stuff, that is a service we used to not have to pay for, but we do now,” Klosterman said. She also said that Food Life Services was blessed to have its own box truck, which the pantry had invested in. Other blessings come in the form of community partnerships, such as the pantry has with local grocery stores such as Food Lion.
“Every day we get meat and produce and bakery items, and we recently picked up some extra days to pick food up at Walmart, and we are blessed by that, we go on Mondays and Fridays at 10,” Klosterman said. Hundreds of pounds of food have to be loaded and unloaded on the truck, which “gets a little hard on some of the older volunteers.”
The average age of volunteers at Food Life Services is around 70 years old and the pantry could really use some younger people to get involved and help with some of the heavy lifting. They also need someone who can drive and back the food pantry truck up to the loading area. She also said the food pantry was “blessed by the alternative school”, which would sometimes send students to help unload the truck on Tuesdays if the kids are caught up on what they need to do and that it also helps with their community service hours.
“I get concerned the pantry may close some day due to a lack of volunteers,” Klosterman said, adding that the hope is some of the younger generation will come help out and stay involved.
She said this donation from Leadership Campbell County would go a long way to helping people right here within the community.
“This generous contribution — both in time and resources — is a true blessing for Food Life Services and the many individuals and families they serve.”
According to organizers, “the Leadership Committee, along with so many others, couldn’t be more proud of the passion, teamwork, and commitment this class has shown for Campbell County. What an incredible way to represent our community!”
Leadership class members, as well as the Leadership board, along with Food Life Services extended a “heartfelt thank you to all the businesses and individuals who donated and supported this class in accomplishing such a tremendous project, and a very special thank you to all the individuals who donated and truly showed what it means for Campbell County to help Campbell County. Your generosity and community spirit do not go unnoticed.”
If you would like to support or volunteer with Food Life Services, they are always in need of helping hands and monetary and food donations. They are located at 800 East Chestnut Street, LaFollette, in the former East LaFollette School building. The mailing address is P.O. Box 802, LaFollette, Tennessee 37766.
The point of contact person is Barbara Klosterman at 937.609.9008 (please leave a message or text), or 423.907.8212 and leave a message and someone will get back to you within 24 hours.
They are also working to grow their social media presence, so be on the lookout for more ways to stay connected and get involved.
Both Leadership Campbell County and Food Life Services would like to say a “special thanks” to the following businesses:
Peoples Bank of the South
Pyro Shows
State Farm Agent Lynn Ray
Walters Funeral Home
The Sports Shoppe- Mike Garner
Black Bear T-shirts
Fast Pace Urgent Care
Litho Craft Printing & Office Supply
Byrge Screen Printing
A1 Shipping & Printing
Cross Smith Funeral Home
Wender’s Furniture
Telos Global
Clinch River Castings
Smith ACE Hardware
State Farm Agent Linda Kilgore
Brandon Partin – Property Assessor
Mother Earth Massage
Refuel IV
Brittany Foust – Register of Deeds
Whites Tire & Auto Care
Kash & Karry Building Supply
Knobby Hill Farm
TCAT – Faculty, Staff & Students
Rice Oil Company
Riggs Drug Store
Eagle Tire Pros
LaFollette Utilities Board
Jack Lynch- Campbell County Mayor’s Office
PCUD
Lindsay’s Carpet & Paint Center
WLAF AM FM TV & DOTCOM
A NOTE FROM THE GRAND ON CENTRAL: “There is so much good going on in our community, and I want to share all this good with you every Monday here on WLAF in hopes that you will start your week in a grand way making each week a Grand Week,” said Olivia Lobertini, owner of The Grand on Central.
For bookings, email Olivia Lobertini at ohlobertini03@gmail.com. Check on avails HERE. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-02/23/2026-6AM)