We recently celebrated our dedicated community of volunteers on April 10 during the annual Volunteer Luncheon at the Central Kentucky Community Foundation in Elizabethtown. The event celebrated the contributions of FAKH volunteers who have supported our organization’s mission to combat food insecurity across our 42-county service area in the last year.
In 2025, volunteers packed 96,438 Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) boxes to support low-income seniors, along with 117,074 Backpack Program bags filled with kid-friendly food items to ensure students have meals on weekends when school is not in session. In total, nearly 13,500 hours of service were logged last year at the Volunteer Center in Elizabethtown.
“Our volunteers are at the heart of everything we do,” said FAKH Executive Director Charles Dennis. “Because of their compassion and commitment, thousands of neighbors across our region have consistent access to the food they need. We simply could not fulfill our mission without them.”
Along with celebrating dozens of individual and group volunteers, the highlight of the luncheon was presenting the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Awards, which honor individuals and entities that have shown exceptional dedication to support FAKH’s mission. The recipients included Tony and Gayle Shafer, who volunteer with us three times a week every week; Parkway Baptist Church in LaRue County, which organizes a monthly volunteer group; and Bani Purcell, a longtime CSFP delivery driver who picks up senior boxes on her lunch break from her job at The Cecilian Bank and delivers them along her route after work.
“The individuals and organizations we’ve recognized today embody what it means to serve,” FAKH Board Chair Laura Hagan said. “They constantly give their time and energy to a cause that is so important, and their efforts make a real difference in the lives of our neighbors.” FAKH’s Volunteer Center at 300 Peterson Drive in Elizabethtown is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET for anyone interested in volunteering. To learn more about FAKH’s mission or how to get involved, visit feedingamericaky.org/volunteer.
