A local food pantry is requesting more helping hands to better serve the needy of Bowling Green.
The St. Joseph Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic organization that strives to meet community needs, operates a food pantry at 1133 Adams St. in Bowling Green.
It is currently staffed by about 20 volunteers, only half of what the pantry had when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Despite staffing struggles, the operation distributed more food in each of the past two years than in 2019.
John T. Riley, a former Western Kentucky University professor and consultant, has served as the pantry’s president for the last three years. He said the pantry was providing food for 37 to 38 families a week in 2019, but that number has increased to more than 60 in 2022 due to rising living costs.
“Food distribution groups around town, we’re all in the same boat. More and more people need food,” Riley said. “The number of people coming to see us is increasing very rapidly. We need more help.”
The pantry had to stay open to help during the pandemic, and Riley and his team powered through. The different parts of the distribution process were split into separate rooms to accommodate wellness guidelines and clients picked up food from a drive-through instead of coming inside.
“We as a group decided we’ve got to stay open,” Riley said. “We made it.”
Riley enjoys his responsibilities, which involve ordering food and preparing “spoilage” from local grocers – donated items that were past the sell-by date that are still good to eat.
“They call it spoilage, we call it good food,” Riley said. “We clean it up and distribute what we can.”
Families are each given a bag of produce, which can include things like celery, lettuce, squash and zucchini. The pantry stocks nonperishables like canned fruit and vegetables as well as rice, peanut butter, crackers, breakfast bars and cereals.
The pantry distributes every Thursday morning, and if there is anything left over it is donated to the Salvation Army or Bowling Green Veterans Clinic. Riley said St. Teresa Thrift Store is a major contributor and supporter of the pantry and more than 60% of its food is donated from local grocers such as GFS or Houchens Industries.
“That food might be wasted if we don’t collect it, I’m proud of that,” Riley said. “We don’t waste any food. Nobody ever brings food back.”
Riley said he has “probably 150 anecdotes” about how the pantry has positively affected local families, showing him just how important the operation is to the city of Bowling Green.
“The clients need it so much, they all have problems, all we have to do is listen to them,” Riley said. “They’ll tell you what they really need. More than anything else, you’ve got to respect their dignity.”
The group of volunteers “works their tails off” to keep the pantry going, but the job is rewarding. “All we have are heavenly rewards,” Riley said.
A recently-minted octogenarian, he doesn’t mind the workload – even if his wife thinks he works too much.
“I said, ‘No I don’t, you’ve got to stay busy,’ ” Riley said. “To work is to pray. When you see me working, I’m praying. I like the work.”
The pantry recently wrapped up a round of much-needed renovations funded by donations and a grant that Riley submitted to United Way.
“We said we’ve got to have a better delivery door system, a better place for clients to come in and stay while we’re getting their information or they’re waiting for food, we’ve got to fix the floors, paint it, do the electricity,” Riley said. “We have a beautiful facility now. Everything we wanted, we pretty much got. Good people decided this is a great thing.”
Riley said about two-thirds of the volunteers, including himself, are Catholic, but anyone from any background is welcome to join up.
“I tell my former colleagues at Western – some of them help me here – I had a wonderful career at WKU. Wouldn’t change anything,” Riley said. “But the food pantry is another wonderful career. I don’t get paid for it, but I enjoy it just as much and feel better after having done it. The people I work with are very special to me.”
Anyone with an interest in picking up, preparing, unloading or distributing food is encouraged to call the pantry at 270-393-9810.
