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Ellery Sedgwick came to Farmville with the job of feeding the mind, his primary activity now involves feeding the body, and the overall impact of his work has the ability to help feed the soul as well.

Sedgwick is 77, and most know him now as the president of Farmville Area Community Emergency Services (FACES) Food Pantry and the chair of the FACES Board of Directors.

He is retired, so his time is his own, but he likes to have a lot to do.

“The majority of my time is taken up with FACES,” he said. “That’s really my project at this point.”

He said that FACES has two locations in Prince Edward County where it distributes food. The organization’s annual distribution is around 1.4 million pounds of food. The average total individuals served weekly is more than 1,000, representing about 750 households. The annual savings to area low-income families is more than $1.57 million.

FACES serves people in Prince Edward County, the northern section of Charlotte County and some of the southern portion of Cumberland County.

Making all this giving a reality is hands-on work for Sedgwick and the FACES board of about 17 people.

“FACES’ board drives the forklift, works the pallet jack and slings the chicken, is there on Saturday morning to make distributions,” he said. “They’re the staff.”

He said he will regularly go to the food baggings, is involved in the storing of the food, as well as public relations and managing FACES’ relationship with Feed More, an umbrella organization that supplies food to about 300 agencies, including FACES, from the Northern Neck down to Halifax on the North Carolina line.

Sedgwick is a Feed Moore board member and is vice chair of Feed More’s Agency Advisory, representing the approximately 300 agencies to which Feed More distributes.