Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles is visiting food banks across the Commonwealth. He's getting a firsthand look at the farms to food banks program, and learning how it benefits Kentucky families."Hunger exists in every county and city, and I'm happy to see the work that's being done by Shively Area Ministries and Dare to Care in the Louisville area," said Ryan Quarles. Shively Area Ministries sometimes feeds 70 families a day."On an average month, we serve around 600 families a month. Some of them are individuals. Some of them are large families," said Gary Copeland, director of Shively Area Ministries. The shelves of the pantry are lined with a variety of foods, but it's the fresh food, farmed locally, that makes the biggest impact."The produce that we bring are able to distribute through this program is a changer in terms of the health of our clients and in terms of the attractiveness of finding good foods to eat," said Copeland. Since the program began in 2011, Feeding Kentucky has distributed 18.5 million pounds of Kentucky produce, which is enough for 30 million meals."Sometimes not every cucumber makes it to a grocery store shelf and sometimes they're too big or too small and may have a small blemish on it, but they're perfectly fine. They're edible and nutritious," said Quarles. Agriculture commissioner Ryan Quarles toured the facility in Shively to learn about the need that still exists in the community."The Department of Agriculture through the Kentucky Hunger Initiative, we're trying to not only learn about how to better address food insecurity, but also find out what programs are working and hopefully scale them across the state as well.," said Quarles.
Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles is visiting food banks across the Commonwealth. He's getting a firsthand look at the farms to food banks program, and learning how it benefits Kentucky families.
"Hunger exists in every county and city, and I'm happy to see the work that's being done by Shively Area Ministries and Dare to Care in the Louisville area," said Ryan Quarles.
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Shively Area Ministries sometimes feeds 70 families a day.
"On an average month, we serve around 600 families a month. Some of them are individuals. Some of them are large families," said Gary Copeland, director of Shively Area Ministries.
The shelves of the pantry are lined with a variety of foods, but it's the fresh food, farmed locally, that makes the biggest impact.
"The produce that we bring are able to distribute through this program is a changer in terms of the health of our clients and in terms of the attractiveness of finding good foods to eat," said Copeland.
Since the program began in 2011, Feeding Kentucky has distributed 18.5 million pounds of Kentucky produce, which is enough for 30 million meals.
"Sometimes not every cucumber makes it to a grocery store shelf and sometimes they're too big or too small and may have a small blemish on it, but they're perfectly fine. They're edible and nutritious," said Quarles.
Agriculture commissioner Ryan Quarles toured the facility in Shively to learn about the need that still exists in the community.
"The Department of Agriculture through the Kentucky Hunger Initiative, we're trying to not only learn about how to better address food insecurity, but also find out what programs are working and hopefully scale them across the state as well.," said Quarles.
