The First Day of Food Banking
On the first day of food banking, we share with you our facilities. The warehouse you may have visited is a 35,509 square foot space in Lexington, but we also operate four other facilities – 43,000 square feet in Winchester, 13,000 square feet in London, 8,931 square feet in Morehead, and 6,293 square feet in Prestonsburg.
We average a full turnover our inventory every two weeks, and that’s how we can distribute more than 30 million pounds of food annually. We are on target to distribute more than 37 million pounds of food in the fiscal year 2019, but there are more hungry Kentuckians than can be fed by our facilities. Your support of God’s Pantry Food Bank allows us to maintain and expand the facilities that are needed to meet our mission.
The Second Day of Food Banking
On the second day of food banking, we’ll tell you about our fleet. We own our trucks and employ our own drivers. Why? We pick up food from grocery stores and other retailers throughout our service area every day, and we deliver food to pantries throughout Central and Eastern Kentucky. We also use our trucks for summer produce distributions and mobile pantries in underserved counties that don’t have an established pantry.
Managing our own small fleet allows us to move food quickly to where it’s needed and respond to emergencies. Your support helps us keep our fleet of 4 semis, 9 box trucks, and 3 vans operational so we can continue to get excess food to hungry Kentuckians.
The Third Day of Food Banking
On the third day of food banking, we want to tell you about our events. Taste of the Bluegrass – in its 39th year as Lexington’s original tasting event – and Taste of Southeast Kentucky showcase the best food, drink, and dessert in Central and Eastern Kentucky. Chili Wars brings the heat to Morehead with the spiciest chili cook-off in town. Golf for the Hungry takes us out on the links for a day of fun and sport, and Basket Brigade recruits the finest to help us pack more than 5000 Thanksgiving meals for families in need throughout our service area. No matter what you like to do, we’ve got something for you!
The Fourth Day of Food Banking
On the fourth day of food banking, our staff deserves recognition. God’s Pantry Food Bank employs close to 60 people who work in our facilities in Lexington, Morehead, Winchester, Prestonsburg, and London. Some employees work in the warehouses, making sure that the food we receive and send back out is sorted quickly and stored safely. Others drive the trucks that pick up and deliver the food, and several track inventory and order or rescue the food that we distribute Some of our staff manage programs like the BackPack Program for kids, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program for seniors, our volunteer program, and the pantries we serve in all 50 counties in our service area. Still, others write grants, plan events, and share our message with donors, volunteers, and the public.
Every member of our team is valuable to our mission, and our employees demonstrate their commitment every day to fighting hunger in Central and Eastern Kentucky. We are all proud to be a part of this work and appreciate your support of what we do.
The Fifth Day of Food Banking
On the fifth day of food banking, we want to thank the preschoolers at the Redwood Cooperative School. They held a food drive and really got into the spirit by decorating their collection boxes.
Food drives are one of the ways that we supplement the food that we purchase. Food drives allow us to offer some additional variety in our pantries and can be a fun way to help fight hunger in your community. Food that you donate stays in the county where you host the food drive, so your support stays right in your neighborhood.
To host a food drive or a fund drive, simply fill out the form on our website! Your support is needed all year long – not just during the holiday season.
The Sixth Day of Food Banking
On the sixth day of food banking, we’re thinking about food rescue. One of the ways we get food is through donations from grocery stores like Kroger and ALDI USA, and large retailers such as Walmart, Meijer, and Target. Retailers turn over both perishable and nonperishable foods on a daily basis, and we benefit by receiving safe and tasty food that might otherwise be wasted, including produce, dairy, and frozen foods. Our trucks and drivers make daily pick-ups at retailers throughout Central and Eastern Kentucky, and many of the pantries and meal distribution programs that are a part of our network also pick up directly from these stores in their area.
Did you know that we also are able to take some prepared foods from restaurants and caterers? Many people don’t know that some of those foods can also be donated to the Food Bank where we arrange for them to be taken to soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Keeneland, Kroger Field, and Little Caesars have all saved thousands of pounds of food just by letting us know it’s available for donation.
We appreciate all of our retail and food service partners for their commitment to eliminating food waste and feeding hungry neighbors. Your support helps us grow our rescue programs.
The Seventh Day of Food Banking
On the seventh day of food banking, we celebrate our volunteers! Teams of volunteers regularly do an amazing job sorting food from food drives and repacking bulk foods into family-sized portions in the Lexington and London locations. Others regularly staff our intake line, assisting with referrals and information on receiving help. We have volunteers who pick up food from restaurants and deliver it directly to soup kitchens and shelters, volunteers who help out with mailings and greeting visitors, and we can’t forget the volunteers at the pantries and our partner agencies that provide meals for spending their time directly helping clients.
There are many ways to volunteer with us. Learn more and sign up for a warehouse shift or contact us about working with one of our programs.
https://godspantry.org/get-involved/volunteer/
The Eighth Day of Food Banking
On the eighth day of food banking, we want to discuss disaster relief and emergency assistance.
Through the Feeding America network of food banks, we have the opportunity to assist with relief efforts when disaster strikes in other states. We were asked to assist after Hurricane Harvey struck the Gulf Coast in 2017 and after Hurricanes Florence and Michael hit in 2018. We were able to send staff and volunteers to those locations to help, as well as provide food and funds, thanks to generous donations to our disaster relief fund from many of you who were concerned with the residents in those areas.
Closer to home, we facilitated water distributions in Martin County in response to their crisis situation and organized emergency food distributions in August following the major storm and power outage that cost many in Lexington all of their perishable foods.
Your assistance allows us to assist our sister food banks to provide emergency services in their areas when devastating disasters strike that affect their ability to provide services.
The Ninth Day of Food Banking
On the ninth day of food banking, we thank you for supporting seniors in Kentucky. Kentucky ranks sixth in the nation for seniors living with hunger, with 1 in 10 individuals aged 60 and over struggling with access to food.
We serve seniors in Central and Eastern Kentucky through food pantries and meal programs, as well as through the federally-supported CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program) that provides a monthly box of nutritious staples to qualifying seniors.
Your help allows us to provide more for seniors who struggle with hunger.
The Tenth Day of Food Banking
On the tenth day of food banking, it’s all about produce!
Non-perishable foods are important for the Food Bank, because sometimes our neighbors who are visiting the pantry need to stock up on food that lasts because they may lack access to regular transportation, or they may have limitations on safe storage for fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy products that need refrigeration, and frozen items. However, it’s also important to provide fresh, healthy foods to supplement non-perishables.
The Farms to Food Banks Program is a valuable resource for supporting access to produce. Through the program, we can purchase surplus and number two grade produce from Kentucky farmers at a discount, the farmers minimize losses and receive tax incentives to make this produce available, and families can put fresh produce on the table at no cost. Throughout the summer months produce comes to us through this program, and we organize produce drops throughout our 50 county service area.
Thanks to the Kentucky Association of Food Banks for their advocacy work that makes funding for this program possible. Through their work and your support, we distributed more than 12 million pounds of produce in the fiscal year 2018.
The Eleventh Day of Food Banking
On the eleventh day of food banking, let’s talk about kids. 1 in 5 children in Kentucky lacks consistent access to enough food to live a healthy, active, normal life.
Because when children are hungry it’s harder to grow, harder to pay attention, and harder to learn, we work hard to alleviate childhood hunger in Central and Eastern Kentucky. We don’t just feed children through pantries and shelters but support a number of programs specifically for kids, such as the BackPack Program and the Summer Meals and Snacks Program, which feed kids on weekends and in the summer when they have no access to free and reduced lunches at school. Kids Café Programs provide meals and snacks throughout the year to children while also providing them with a safe space and social and educational activities.
We are committed to alleviating hunger for Kentucky’s children because all kids need the opportunity to learn and grow.
The Twelfth Day of Food Banking
On the twelfth day of food banking, we wish you a happy holiday and a glorious winter filled with joy and wonder. Thank you for your dedicated support.
