In the more than a decade that Taylor Calhoun has served on the board of Greenwood Interfaith Ministries’ Community Kitchen, he has worried occasionally about the charitable feeding program’s survival.
“There has been times that I really thought that the doors were going to close at the kitchen, but this town’s community always rises to the occasion and supports it, however it’s needed,” the board’s current president told the Greenwood Rotary Club Tuesday.
The latest evidence of that support took place last week, when the Community Kitchen’s largest fundraiser, the Celebrity Waiter Dinner, raised $27,000.
Opened in 2003, the Community Kitchen, located on Johnson Street in downtown Greenwood, provides a free lunch Monday through Friday to anyone who shows up, “without any questions asked,” as Calhoun said. But its clear mission is to feed the hungry.
The kitchen is overseen by a board of representatives from local churches.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community Kitchen has been serving all of its meals since last year on a takeout basis. In the meantime, the demand has soared from averaging 175 meals a day to 320 this past Monday.
Calhoun, who works in Greenwood as the city president for BankPlus, speculated that the increase may reflect more people thrown out of work or shut in at home by the pandemic.
He also said that a takeout system may be more appealing to people shy about getting help, lessening the stigma that might have been attached to “having to go in and sit down,” he said.
Calhoun gave special credit to board members Jenny Thompson and Freda Maxey for helping to put the Community Kitchen on a sounder financial footing, and he gushed about Carlee Bailey, the program’s longtime executive director and lone paid employee.
“She is sweet as pie, but she runs it with an iron fist. She doesn’t put up with anything. Nobody is going to come in there and act a fool,” Calhoun said of Bailey.
“We would be in such a mess without her. She is just such a blessing.”
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
