GEORGETOWN, Ky. — November is a special month for the Amen House in Georgetown. It's about making sure everyone in Scott County has a wholesome holiday meal.
What You Need To Know
- The Amen House is working to bring wholesome holiday meals to everyone in Scott County
- The Georgetown organization is volunteer-run
- Volunteers fill hundreds of bags will all the Thanksgiving staples
- Not even the COVID-19 pandemic could stop them from feeding those in need
Hundreds of bags are filled by volunteers with all the traditional Thanksgiving favorites.
"It truly is the food holiday, so we will probably see probably 100 to 200 more people showing up for food this month than we have the past four or five months," said Michele Carlisle, Amen House executive director. "We get it. Everybody just wants to be able to provide that feast for their family for Thanksgiving."
Each bag is assembled and ready to go to anyone in need across Scott County. Potatoes, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce and more: these kits have all the essentials.
"There's 11 items that go in each one. Then when they pick it up, they also get a $15 gift card to either Kroger or Walmart to buy a turkey or ham or whatever their family might want," said volunteer Barbara Wilhoite.
It's food that the even the COVID-19 pandemic could not stop from being handed out.
"We had to transform the way we distributed Thanksgiving," Carlisle said. "COVID made that a requirement, but honestly, we have seen it as a silver lining."
The Amen House started handing out the goods at the beginning of November and will continue up through the day before Thanksgiving, Carlisle said. With nearly nine-hundred requests for Thanksgiving food assistance this year, The Amen House relies on a small army of volunteers to ensure that all in need can get a thankful meal.
"We have had several packing parties and the biggest packing party, there's about 14, 15 people in this little room, and they just went around in circles, one of each thing, bagged it up, and then we stored in a back room," Wilhhoite said. "They did over 400 and a little over an hour, between an hour, hour and a half. It was amazing."
Carlisle said the Amen House is always thankful for the community's support.
"We can't do what we do without you guys. It is very, very obvious. In every direction that we've stepped in to try to fight hunger, Scott County supports that, and we can't do what we do without the generosity of this community," she said.
The Amen House hopes that generosity will keep everyone in Scott County from going hungry this Thanksgiving and beyond.