Press Room
June Volunteer Spotlight: "Acts in Life" from Southland Christian Church
God’s Pantry Food Bank like to send a very special thank you out to the “Acts in Life” life group from Southland Christian Church for volunteering with us at the beginning of May. Their group also has volunteered with a number of other nonprofit organizations in the community such as Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Bluegrass, Habitat for Humanity, and the Epilepsy Foundation of Kentuckiana.
One of the volunteers, Dan Sullivan, told us why they came out to volunteer. “God’s Pantry Food Bank is an awesome ministry that we want to support and we’re always looking for good organizations to give our time and energy to,” Sullivan said.
Gary Overall shared that his favorite part about volunteering was spending time with the life group. “I really liked working with our group – getting to enjoy some fellowship together," Overall said. "Plus, the activity was organized really well so there was no idle time. We really felt like we accomplished a lot as a group.”
But before getting started with their volunteer time, the life group learned more about the history and mission of God’s Pantry Food Bank. Some of this information proved surprising to a few people in the group.
Mark Bowling said, "I didn’t know that [GPFB] serves so many hundreds of smaller agencies and programs. This is really more of a distribution center, compared to what most people probably think of as a small food pantry.”
Sheri Sullivan added that she didn’t realize that the six emergency food pantries in Fayette County run very low on food during the summer months. Concerned citizens can help increase the supply of food to the pantries by organizing food drives or simply depositing food in the donation barrels at all area Kroger stores. All food donations made in Lexington go to the Lexington pantries.
Some of the most interesting items they came across while sorting food included salsa, coconut water, and lots of chocolates and candy. We can’t really explain the coconut water, but the candy isn’t all too surprising around this time of year. Thanks to our retail store program with participating Kroger and Wal-Mart stores, God’s Pantry Food Bank is in a unique position to accept leftover/excess food product that has been marketed toward specific holidays, movies, etc. So when the Southland Life Group was here, there was a lot of Easter candy floating around our warehouse. They were good sports about it, though it did seem to make them pretty hungry!