A Woman of Many Titles

Director Linda

“Feed the hungry, heal the sick and proclaim the gospel,” is the motto of the Dublin Food Pantry, where Linda has been the volunteer director for three years and worked for 15 years. In that time, she has seen the economy take its toll and the number of Dublin residents in need of help increase. Each month, the food pantry, located in the basement of Dublin Community Church, provides for 220 families, with dozens of new Dublin residents regularly asking for help.

The number of first-time pantry clients is on the upswing, and many feel ashamed that they have to ask for help to put food on the table, Linda says. She and the trained volunteers try to keep their clients’ spirits lifted and their dignity intact.

“We don’t know their whole story, and it’s not our place to judge them,” she says. “These are human beings at a particular stage in their journey, and we want them to walk through here with their heads held high.”

Catherine O’Connell is Linda’s right-hand woman and is in charge of the 75 to 100 volunteers needed weekly to handle the pantry’s tasks. Those jobs include stocking shelves, assisting clients and picking up food from large donors like Whole Foods, which donates 500 to 800 pounds of food each week to the pantry. Other regular donors include Starbucks, Chipotle, Giant Eagle, Panera, GFS, Bob Evans and Trader Joe’s.

Linda Fisher is like a puzzle – many small pieces fit together to make one amazing woman. For the past 15 years, more and more pieces have been added to Linda, but not one additional duty or responsibility has taken away from who she is – and her love for the Dublin community.

As a former Baptist missionary in the U.S., Spain and Venezuela, Linda, 57, has moved 15 times in 22 years. She and her husband, Gary, also a Baptist missionary, came to Columbus from Venezuela in 1996 when their daughters, Leslie and Stephanie, were 16 and 12, respectively. Linda wasn’t sure how her gifts would be used, but it became clear during the subsequent 15 years that many people, from all walks of life, would benefit from her passion for humanity and the Dublin community.

“Linda is a phenomenal asset to the Dublin Food Pantry,” O’Connell says. “She does hands-on physical labor as well as mental work, shows great passion for the clients and the pantry, and dedicates an enormous amount of time. Linda is the complete package.”

Of course, Linda has a different take on the subject.

“I have the best job in Dublin. I’m the public face of our generous community, which brings in food and lets me hand out the goodies like Santa Claus,” she says.

A perfect example of local generosity takes place at the Dublin Irish Festival each August. In 2011, the festival raised nearly $8,000 and 10,000 pounds of food for the pantry.

The Dublin Food Pantry has outgrown its space and is looking to share a building with the Welcome Warehouse of Dublin on Brand Road at Indian Run United Methodist Church. Ideally, pantry officials would like to offer food, counseling, parenting classing and job training all under the same roof.

“We want to help our clients be givers, not just receivers,” says Linda.

Linda will step back from her director duties at the Dublin Food Pantry when the board hires a full-time, paid administrator who can seek large grants and choose a direction for the pantry as it grows.

Linda Fisher adds director, señora and farmer to her list of jobs

Señora Linda

A new piece to Linda’s puzzle came in 1997, when the Dublin Baptist Church expressed a need for bilingual help due to an increase in the area’s Latino population.

Linda began assisting Spanish-speaking families by arranging appointments, talking to doctors and offering counseling. Her presence made a difference, and Señora Linda was named the community outreach director of the Hispanic Chapel. Her husband was named pastor, and together, they started a Spanish-speaking worship at 9:30 a.m. Sunday mornings.

Linda and Gary are as comfortable speaking Spanish as they are speaking English. At gatherings, Linda plays her acoustic guitar and sings praises in Spanish with the mostly Latino guests, who accompany her with maracas and tambourines. Then they take turns discussing what they are thankful for – “Estoy agradecido a Dios por” – and using the time to chat about their families, jobs and religion.

Three time a week, Linda travels to congregants’ homes for Bible study. At the trailer park on Avery Road, she teaches English classes based on the Bible. In the summer, they have backyard Bible clubs, which is like vacation Bible school, but Linda and Gary travel to the children.

“Many of our students don’t have transportation, or they work odd hours and can’t transport the children,” says Linda. “Last summer, we met with 180 children at eight different sites and had to enlist a large team of energetic teenage volunteers to help.”

Farmer Linda

For the past year, Linda and her family have lived and worked on Kibby’s Family Heirlooms farm, a multi-generational family farm in Milford Center, southwest of Marysville. They grow heirloom variety fruits, vegetables and herbs to give families safe and healthy food options.

Linda’s son-in-law, Jim Kuebler, who goes by “Kibby,” is a sous chef at Doc’s Café

MERRY CHRISTMAS, DUBLIN!

We celebrate your giving spirit and thank you for not only “giving back,” but “paying forward” through your hours of volunteering. Enjoy breakfast on us; it’s our pleasure to serve you!

and Wine Bar in Marysville. It was Kibby’s idea to grow their own food with organic methodology to use in the restaurant, at home, at farmers’ markets and to provide local families through community supported agriculture.

The house gets crowded with Kibby; his wife, Leslie; and their daughter, Soraya, 3, all sharing space with Linda, Gary and Linda’s mom, Helen Postlewait. The only one missing is daughter Stephanie, who lives in Florida.

“A lot of grace is extended to one another when living together,” Linda says. But they wouldn’t have it any other way and all are enjoying the satisfaction of working the land. Linda certainly has enough on her plate to keep her busy and fill her day.

Her friend, Priscilla Colon, from the Hispanic Ministry says it best.

“Most of us have 24 hours in a day, but God must have given Linda 48 hours for all that she accomplishes,” she says.

Dublin resident Colleen D’Angelo is a contributing writer. Comments and feedback welcome at dublinlife@pubgroupltd.com.