FARMVILLE — FACES Food Pantry has been awarded a grant from CSX and The Conservation Fund towards purchasing a used refrigerated truck, which will significantly increase produce distribution through 15 food pantries and eight counties.

“CSX and The Conservation Fund today announced the grant recipients for the 2015 Grant Program for Transporting Healthy Food.

Twelve charitable organizations in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia will receive grants ranging from $4,000 to $10,000 to support and strengthen local transportation and distribution of fresh produce and healthy food to communities in need,” the release stated.

“The grant awarded by CSX to FACES is a major step towards enabling FACES to distribute more fresh produce in Southside Virginia,” said FACES President Dr. Ellery Sedgwick. “With additional support from Feedmore and the Central Virginia Foodbank, we expect to buy a refrigerated truck to distribute produce to food pantries in as many as eight counties.”

According to the release, FACES distributes food weekly to an average of 960 households representing 1,358 individuals carefully screened to document need.