Community Kitchen opens doors to fight food insecurity with 1,000 free meals
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - On Sunday, Feed Evansville provided 1,000 free meals at the second annual Longest Table event at the C.K. Newsome Center.
Hundreds of community members sat down for a family-style, free dinner with their neighbors.
The event was to celebrate the opening of the Feed Evansville Community Kitchen.
The kitchen has been more than five years in the making and was built with $1 million of American Rescue Plan funding.
Executive Director of Feed Evansville, Lisa Vaughan, says the new community kitchen will help provide nonprofits a space to prep and store meals for those who need it.
“We’ll be able to work with the ford center and get the leftovers and be able to turn it into bread pudding and different things. Your imagination is the limit,” she said.
Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry says food shortages are impacting more and more families in Evansville.
“Within our school corporation, over 50% are on free and reduced lunch. We also know we have many food deserts and people who are living in poverty. So, this is very much a need,” she said,
Vaughan says increased food insecurity is not because of a lack of food being donated to organizations like Feed Evansville.
“There’s times when Feed Evansville had to turn away large donations to the city because we didn’t have a place to put it,” she said. “The biggest haul was 43,000 pounds of potatoes. The Feed Evansville crew was handing out potatoes nonstop from seven in the morning to nine ten o’clock at night for several nights. Unfortunately, there’s going to be some food spoilage because we’re not handing it out fast enough.”
According to Vaughan, while nonprofits will be able to use the kitchen, there’s also plans to rent out the space to entrepreneurs needing kitchen space.
Those renting out the community center for gatherings and celebrations will be able to prepare food in the new space as well.
“It is truly a real statement,” Vaughan said. “When we come together, we can feed Evansville.”
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