Patty has been volunteering with us for many years, and volunteering runs in her family! Patty’s sister has also been volunteering at a nonprofit called Master Provisions in Northern Kentucky.
When we were having trouble getting enough vegetables to serve, Patty reached out to her sister to see if they had any extra down there, and a partnership was formed. Not only do we now have access to more rescued food to serve our guests, but we also have a resource that can help distribute food to other soup kitchens and food pantries if we are contacted about a donation that is too big for us to handle alone.
While we serve hundreds of meals each day, we aren’t always able to move food quickly enough to use it all. This happens sometimes with donations from businesses, such as bakeries that donate day-old bread. “It’s great that when we’re here [at ODB], and we get too much bread or too much of something, I can take a load over to Master Provisions, and they can distribute it, and we can pick up what we need,” Patty said.
Last month, we had the opportunity to get boxes and boxes of frozen fish, but we did not have the storage capacity for all of it- so, we called Master Provisions. “They went and got it, and they used it, but we had the opportunity to get some, too- that day, I had a whole carload full.” We were excited to prepare and serve up some really tasty fish sandwiches for our guests.
“It’s a great partnership- feeding everyone in the city is a collaborative effort, and I don’t want to see anything go in the trash that doesn’t have to,” said Patty.
It’s been so wonderful to build connections across the river!