HPR4288: God's Pantry Food Bank

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host.

Greetings and welcome to Hacker Public Radio.

My name is Peter Paterson, also known as SolusSpider, a Scotsman living in Kentucky, USA.

This is my second HPR recording.

The first was episode 4258 where I gave my introduction and computer history.

Once again I am recording the audio on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, running Android 14, with Audio Recorder by Axet. The app was installed from F-Droid.

Markdown

For my Shownotes I learned to use Markdown by using the ReText app, which allows me to write in one window and preview the result in another.

What is this show about?

When I visited Archer72, AKA Mark Rice, in November 2024 in his University of Kentucky trauma room I reminded him that I work for God's Pantry Food Bank.

He said he wanted to hear more, and highly suggested that I record the story as an HPR show, so here we are.

I plan to ask the questions I hear from so many, and attempt to answer them as best I am able.

What is the History of God's Pantry Food Bank?

Reading directly from the About-Us page of Godspantry.org

Mim Hunt, the founder of God's Pantry Food Bank, vowed to leave "the heartbreaking profession of social work" behind when she returned to her hometown of Lexington after serving as a child welfare worker in 1940's New York City. She and her husband, Robert, opened "Mim's," a combination gift shop, antique gallery, and health food store, but after seeing poverty in Lexington that rivaled what she'd fought against in New York, she found herself unable to remain silent.

Mim began her work in Lexington by filling her station wagon with food, clothing, and bedding, and distributing it directly to individuals in need.

Soon, neighbors were bringing food donations to what became known as "Mim's Pantry" located at her home on Lexington's Parkers Mill Road. But Mim quickly corrected them. "I don't fill these shelves," she said. "God does. This is God's Pantry." God's Pantry Food Bank was born out of this work in 1955 and remained mobile until the first pantry was opened in 1959.

Since its founding, the food bank has grown in many ways. What started with one woman attempting to do what she could to address a need is now an organization serving 50 counties in Central and Eastern Kentucky through a number of programs with a dedicated staff committed to the mission of solving hunger.

Mim Hunt devoted her life to helping others, and we continue to honor her legacy at God's Pantry Food Bank. Her work is proof that one person, with every small action, can make a large impact. We invite you to join us in continuing Mim's work.

Where have been the locations of the main Food Bank facility?

My ex-workmate Robert Srodulski recently wrote a reply in Facebook when our newest building was announced.

He stated:

"If I count right, this is the 6th main warehouse location in Lexington. Congratulations!

>

• Mim's house and car

• Oldham Avenue garage

• A building next to Rupp Arena (which is now gone)

• Forbes Road

• Jaggie Fox Way,

• Innovation Drive."

My friend Robert was employed by the Food Bank for 26 years. I am chasing his time as the longest lasting male employee.

Two ladies have longer service times:

• Debbie Amburgey with 36.5 years in our Prestonsburg facility. She started on 19th October 1987. Sadly my good friend Debbie passed earlier this year, and I miss her greatly. She never retired.

• Danielle Bozarth with currently just under 30 years. She started on 30th May 1995.

It would take me just over 11 years to catch up with Debbie's service record, which would take me to the age of 68. Unsure if I shall still be employed by then!

What exactly do I mean by Food Bank?

In February 2023 I wrote a blog post with my explanation of Food Bank. My website is LinuxSpider.net, and you will find the direct link in the shownotes.

The blog was written as a response to friends, mostly from the United Kingdom, asking me very this question.

To many there, and indeed here in USA also, what is called a Food Bank is what I call a local Food Pantry. Nobody is wrong here at all. We all gather food from various sources and distribute it to our neighbours who are in food insecure need.

Most Pantries are totally staffed by volunteers and often open limited hours.

The Food Bank has a larger scope in where we source food from, the amount sourced, does have paid staff but still dependent on volunteers, and we are open at least 40 hours a week. More if you include projects that involve evenings and Saturdays.

God's Pantry Food Bank has a service area which includes 50 of the 120 Counties of Kentucky, covering central, southern, and eastern, including part of Appalachia.

When I started in 1999 we were distributing 6 million pounds weight of food per year. This is about 150 semi-truckloads. Over 25 years later we are looking at distributing about 50 million pounds this year, about 1,250 truckloads.

Over 40% of our distribution is fresh produce.

We are an hunger relief organisation, so this amount of food is assisting our neighbours in need.

In those 50 Counties we have about 400 partner agencies. Many of these agencies are Soup Kitchens, Children's Programs, Senior Programs, as well as Food Pantries.

God's Pantry Food Bank is partnered with the Feeding America network of 198 Food Banks.

In my early years I knew them as America's Second Harvest. In 2008 they changed name to Feeding America. Their website is FeedingAmerica.org

What they do is outlined in their our-work page, including:

• Ensuring everyone can get the food they need with respect and dignity.

• Advocating for policies that improve food security for everyone.

• Partnering to address the root causes of food insecurity, like the high cost of living and lack of access to affordable housing.

• Working with local food banks and meal programs.

• Ending hunger through Food Access, Food Rescue, Disaster Response, and Hunger Research.

I have visited a few other Food Banks, but not as many as I would have liked. We all have our own areas of service, but do often interact as the needs arise, especially in times of disaster.

The Feeding America network came to Kentucky's aid in the past few years with the flooding in the East and tornadoes in the West.

Feeding America aided the Food Banks affected by the devastation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

How did I get started at the Food Bank?

As mentioned in my introduction show I moved from Scotland to Kentucky in May 1999 and married Arianna in June 1999.

Before our wedding I had received my green card. My future Mother-in-Law Eva recommended I check with God's Pantry Food Bank to see if they were hiring.

She was working for Big Lots and had applied for a warehouse job at the Food Bank. Unfortunately for her she never got the job, but she was quite impressed by the organisation. She knew that I had warehouse and driving experience.

So, one day after dropping Arianna at her University of Kentucky Medical Staff Office I stopped by the Food Bank on South Forbes Road to ask.

The answer was that they were indeed hiring for the warehouse, and to come back that afternoon to meet with CW Drury, the Warehouse Manager. I drove home, put on smarter clothes, and drove back.

It was a pleasure meeting CW and hearing about the job. Although most of the explanation of what they did in their mission went over my head at the time, I knew needed a job, and wanted to join this company.

A few days before our wedding I received a phone call from CW offering me the position. I accepted and went for my medical the next day.

My first day with God's Pantry Food Bank was on Tuesday 6th July 1999, the day after our honeymoon.

I will admit that although my previous job in Scotland was a physical one, quite a few months had passed, and the heat was hot that Summer in Kentucky! I went home exhausted everyday, but totally enjoying the work I was doing.

I started off mostly picking orders, assisting Agencies that came in, going to the local Kroger supermarkets to pick up bread, deliver and pick up food barrels of donations, and all the other duties CW assigned me to.

I particularly enjoyed the software part of the job. I forget the name of the software back then, but do remember learning the 10 digit Item Codes.

• 1st is the source

• 2nd and 3rd are the category. There are 31 officially with Feeding America.

• next 6 is the unique UPC - usually from the item bar code

• 10th is the storage code of dry, cooler, or freezer

The first code I memorised was Bread Products: 1040010731

This broke down to Donated, Bread Category, UPC number, and Dry Storage.

I must admit we did not create a new code when we started storing Bread Product in the Cooler. That is probably the only exception

It has been my responsibility all these years to maintain the Item Category Code sheet with different codings we have used and had to invent.

An example is that when the source digit had already used 1