A gesture by a Mount Airy business will help get food into the hands of needy Surry County residents.

“Praise God, that my and many others’ prayers were answered,” was the reaction of Lorene Jones, county coordinator of an ongoing commodities-distribution program, to the move by Granite Development.

After learning Friday through a newspaper article of the need for a site to host the next giveaway of surplus foods in Elkin in September, a Granite Development official came through with a solution.

“He offered me the use of the old Winn-Dixie store located on North Bridge Street,” added Jones. She had learned only last week that the usual location of the distribution in Elkin, the old Kmart building, no longer would be available due to renovations now occurring.

This led to a scramble to find another site by a deadline of this Friday, which was set by state officials who needed to specify its address when mailing advance notices of the distribution to food stamp recipients who participate.

Jones added Monday that the former Winn-Dixie is conveniently located on North Bridge Street in Elkin. It is in the same shopping center as the Kmart building, on the opposite end.

The gesture by Granite Development will allow a distribution of U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities to occur as scheduled on Sept. 13.

Typically, the surplus foods are given out on back-to-back days each quarter in both Elkin and Mount Airy. The existence of the two sites at opposite ends of the county allows qualifying Surry citizens to journey to the location nearest them.

Veterans Memorial Park on West Lebanon Street hosts the giveaways here, with the next to occur on Sept. 14.

Jones said Monday that an urgent appeal issued last week for a new Elkin location led to another positive development in addition to securing the former Winn-Dixie building.

“Now I have a backup location as well,” the coordinator said of the potential use of the Elkin Municipal Park and Recreation Center which also became available during the search.

“It’s not ideal,” Jones said, but having that site in an emergency will avoid the distribution program being put into a bind in the future.

Reach Tom Joyce at 719-1924 or tjoyce@heartlandpublications.com.