Grateful to Assist

Above: Students from Rockcastle County High School Honors Club (above) fill commodity boxes (below) which may include a variety of foods, such as nonfat dry and ultra high-temperature fluid milk, juice, oats, rice, pasta, peanut butter, and dry beans.

Brown corrugated cardboard boxes stacked high on pallets around the warehouse were filled to capacity with boxes of uncooked pasta, bags of pinto beans, and cartons of lactose-free milk. On either side of a row of tables, Rockcastle County High School (RCHS) students mingled their conversation and laughter with volunteers from Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) as they prepared for the monthly distribution of commodities to elderly residents in the county who are low income.

The Honors Club students, clad in t-shirts and jeans; one with a baseball cap flipped on backwards, bantered back and forth as they arranged items for the assembly line that would soon run like a well-oiled machine. One by one each student took his or her place in line to pick an item, pack an item, slide the box. Pick an item, pack an item, slide the box until full. Hand to classmate, place on stack. Move to the back of the line. Then repeat.

The students replicated this process over and over until one box became two, and two boxes became ten, and ten boxes became the 180 commodity boxes filled with supplemental food. Helping earnestly in the background was Elizabeth Stevens, their faculty advisor. Stevens has been surrounded by CAP’s mission for more than two decades. Her mother, Sharon Goff, is the current manager of CAP’s Child and Family Development Center in Mt. Vernon and has worked for CAP for 24 years. This was the second time Stevens brought her students to CAP’s Grateful Bread Food Pantry to serve.

“It’s important for students to be involved in their community,” she said. Stevens believes it is important for her students not only to excel academically, but also to be given opportunities to learn the importance of community service right in their own backyard. “Volunteering with CAP allows my students to have first-hand experience in working with members of their own county. It is a very humbling experience when students are able to see problems like food insecurity that they may not have known existed in their own hometown.”

One of those students, RCHS senior Joy Frith, has helped at the food pantry before with her church. She represented her school at last year’s Hunger Walk, an event created to raise awareness about food insecurity.

“When I became involved with the Hunger Walk, that’s when I started to realize that there are a lot of people in our community that struggle with food insecurity,” Frith said. The food insecurity rate for Rockcastle County is 16.4 percent with nearly 3,000 people living in food insecure homes.

“I like to volunteer in my own community because I know there are a lot of people that struggle with poverty, that struggle with putting food on the table,” Frith said. “It’s a real hands-on experience and it’s good to know that our efforts are helping people.”

Hunger and food insecurity issues exist in every community in the United States. A report released last year titled, “The State of Hunger in America,” found that nearly one out of every 10 seniors in Kentucky is food insecure, that means those seniors are unable to consistently access or afford adequate amounts of food. According to the Appalachian Regional Commission, of the 13 states that make up the Appalachian region, Kentucky has by far the worst poverty rate. Sadly, 20 percent of Eastern Kentuckians do not know where their next meal is coming from.

“What we are doing right now,” Frith said passionately, “just being here and being able to help people out who don’t have access to enough money for food makes a difference.”

“My students have learned that Rockcastle County is home to many, many people who are considered food insecure,” said Stevens, also a biology teacher at RCHS. “It may be family members, neighbors, or even their classmates. It hits home for a lot of students because they realize that this problem is very local and many times we tend to think it is in other parts of the country. My Honors Club students are problem-solvers. If anyone is going to help find solutions to some of these problems, like food insecurity, I firmly believe it will be my students. They are able to see firsthand what is going on and will be able to take that knowledge and find solutions.”

A firsthand experience was exactly what these young volunteers received. After assembling boxes, they stocked shelves and shopped with additional families that visited the pantry. Jackson Cromer, also a senior, learned from his experience. “People at CAP are a blast to work with and it just feels really good to be able to see the need being fulfilled,” he said.

Cromer is glad he has had the opportunity to make food scarcity more visible. “Hunger is a problem and there are a lot of people who care about it and are willing to work with programs like CAP. This has made me want to keep serving others because hunger is not just an isolated problem that happens in our community.”

CAP also benefits when community volunteers get to meet people in need up close, and when they make a commitment to help. “I like seeing students serve at the pantry because it gives young people an opportunity to help make an impact in the fight against hunger in their own community,” said Sherri Barnett, manager of the pantry and coordinator of the annual Hunger Walk. “When they volunteer at the pantry, these high school students have the opportunity to meet and serve people in need that are dealing with hunger issues on a regular basis.”

Stevens, like any good educator, knows that her students don’t just benefit from academics, but from real -world experiences that shape their worldview. “I hope my students will see the importance of being involved in their community. I hope that they will take the knowledge from these experiences and try to help meet the needs of the people we see around us. Our children are the hope for the future. I hope that my students will value people in all walks of life and that we as a society need to help each other out as much as we possibly can.”

As the warehouse was tidied up for the next day’s food pantry visitors, there was a sense of accomplishment that filled the warehouse. Not just 180 boxes filled, but 180 lives impacted by a small group of students. Every small act of kindness makes a difference. Well done Rockets! Well done.

COMMODITY SUPPLEMENTAL FOOD PROGRAM

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) works to improve the health of people who are at least 60 years of age with low incomes by supplementing their diets with nutritious United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) foods. Food packages include a variety of foods, such as nonfat dry and ultra high-temperature fluid milk, juice, oats, ready-to-eat cereal, rice, pasta, peanut butter, dry beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables.

According to Feeding America, CSFP serves about 595,000 people with low incomes each month, and is the only USDA nutrition program that provides monthly food assistance specially targeting seniors with low incomes. The program is designed to meet the unique nutritional needs of participants, supplementing diets with a monthly package of healthy, nutritious USDA commodities. With one in 12 households with seniors at risk of hunger nationwide, CSFP prevents seniors who are vulnerable from having to choose between food and other basic needs.

Most participants either pick up their monthly CSFP box at a local sponsor like Grateful Bread Food Pantry or have a designee who is authorized to pick up for them. CAP also delivers food packages directly to the home of some participants, an important program feature for seniors with limited mobility.

This is the second time that educator Elizabeth Stevens (left front) has brought her students to CAP’s Grateful Bread Food Pantry to serve.