The first drivers pulled up to the fairgrounds around 5:30 a.m. Saturday, nearly an hour before sunrise, so they could collect free food from a Feeding America truck that comes to Hopkinsville once a month.
Each household would receive a box containing several apples, a bag of dry beans, two cans of fruit, several small bags of raisins and a large jug of orange juice — in addition to a couple of bags with potatoes and onions.
“It’s a beautiful thing they do,” said Aubrey White, who borrowed a car and came for food she’ll share with her 8-year-old son and 68-year-old mother.
Church members who help at the monthly food distribution load boxes into a pickup truck Saturday at the fairgrounds. (Hoptown Chronicle photos by Jennifer P. Brown)
White, 45, does not own a vehicle. She quit working as a housekeeper to care for her mother, who is in poor health. Both of the women were receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, before the federal government shutdown disrupted their benefits.
For many, the monthly food distribution that Aaron McNeil organizes is a lifeline.
Aubrey White, who cares for her mother and her 8-year-old son, borrowed a car to get to the monthly food distribution Saturday at the fairgrounds.
White — whose household is one among 4,300 in Christian County whose SNAP benefits are on hold — said she appreciates being treated respectfully by the volunteers who box up and load food in the vehicles.
It is difficult to ask for help, but families like hers struggle when their food is limited, she said.
“You learn to improvise, substitute, and if you can, you go without,” she said.
White’s son always wants to eat chicken nuggets, so she buys strips of meat, cuts them up and breads them. She saves and reuses oil. If food is left on a plate, she freezes it to save for later.
This week Kurt Anderson, executive director at Aaron McNeil, ordered enough food from Feeding America for 1,000 households. It was almost enough for everyone who came on Saturday. They ran out of food with about 20 to 25 cars still in line, Anderson told Hoptown Chronicle.
The food comes at no cost to Aaron McNeil through The Emergency Food Association Program, a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative. The local agency only pays to have the food delivered.
On average, each household receiving food at the fairgrounds has 2.9 residents, so nearly 3,000 people were served this month, said Anderson.
Anderson increased the food order this week because families don’t currently have access to SNAP. He normally places an order to feed 850 to 900 households. The need has steadily increased for the past several years. Before the pandemic, he was ordering food for about 450 households.
Dozens of volunteers prepare food boxes from supplies that arrived on a Feeding American truck on Saturday at the Western Kentucky State Fairgrounds.
Retirees struggle with grocery prices
Liz McGlone waits with two neighbors in a line of cars for the Aaron McNeil monthly food distribution.
Liz McGlone, a 68-year-old retiree, came Saturday with two neighbors from her mobile home park off Russellville Road.
Food prices and other cost-of-living increases have made it hard to get by, said McGlone.
“Food has skyrocketed,” she said, adding her Social Security isn’t enough to cover basic expenses.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have a reason to be,” she said
McGlone owns her mobile home, but it needs work that she cannot afford, and the rent on the lot doubled this year, and might increase again next year, she said.
She expects she will need to return to work soon.
Additional food assistance offered in Hopkinsville
A weekday pantry at Aaron McNeil House, at 604 E. Second St., also provides food assistance.
“We were twice as busy this week as we usually are,” said Anderson.
They were able to meet the need because of the community’s response to the SNAP disruption, but they still need donations of meat, he said.
Others in the community are also stepping up their efforts, including several businesses that are new to food relief in Hopkinsville. Hopkinsville Brewing Co., Baked Hopkinsville, Chick-fil-A, Prosperity Falls Screaming Pizza have helped with free food for children and bagged groceries for families.
Restoration House, a church in the former Belmont Elementary School building at 101 McLean Ave., will have a food distribution beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov 11.
Dining and Cooking