FLORENCE, Ky. — A nonprofit in northern Kentucky is making sure kids and their families don’t go hungry this summer. Food insecurity affects more people than many realize, especially students who depend on free lunch and breakfast during the school year.
As an administrator for St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Jean Pryor is incredibly busy when she’s at work. No one could blame her for using her time off to relax. Instead, during an afternoon in May, she was at the Go Pantry warehouse in Florence, packing boxes of food with other volunteers from St. Elizabeth.
“We donated 162 boxes. And now we’re here checking the dates and packing them up,” she said. “It would be a shame to have anyone go hungry. We live in America. We all should be able to have food and a good summer.”
Go Pantry has been around for 12 years and has been working with St. Elizabeth, its biggest donor, for 10 of them. It all started in Beth McIntire’s basement. She, along with her co-founder, was originally trying to help seven kids that went to school with their kids as part of their church group.
The school principal reached out and asked if they could do more.
“Selfishly, at first, we’re like, ‘Well, we’re kind of tired.’ We weren’t planning on doing anything for the summer. But then when that’s put on your heart, you have to act,” McIntire said. “God intended a lot more for this ministry, so we’re helping the 1,200 students per week. We’re sending out 7,200 boxes this summer.”
The “go boxes” will help sustain kids who usually depend on school lunch and breakfast through the summer, along with their families. As McIntire has learned over the last decade, there are so many more people who need help than she ever realized.
“I think we’re continually surprised. For the state of Kentucky, this is a problem,” she said. “Because we get on our track, we’re gonna go to this school, we’re gonna go to work, we don’t see the pockets of poverty in our community.”
McIntire also has a personal connection to the cause.
“As a child, I did grow up with a single mom, so I know how hard it is. I feel it for the kids and the parents that are in these situations,” she said.
She and other Go Pantry team members also learned from school counselors that the boxes have helped kids in more ways than just filling them up.
“Once a child starts on this program, test scores have gone up. And they attribute it to being able to have that weekend bag, or that box over the longer breaks. We have parents that needed our help for a while, and now they come in here and volunteer. So that’s a full circle moment for us,” McIntire said. “The perfect thing would be that Go Pantry isn’t needed, right? But unfortunately it is, and we will keep working hard in trying to meet that demand.”
From basement to warehouse, to whatever comes next, McIntire said the program will continue to grow, as long as people like Pryor continue to donate food and their time.
“They need not to worry this summer about where their meal is coming from. And they need to be able to enjoy their summer, be kids and have fun,” Pryor said.
Go Pantry is hosting its second annual “party for a purpose” on Aug. 24 at Turfway Park Racing and Gaming. The fundraiser helps restock the pantry to keep kids fed throughout the year.