Episode Transcript
Cate (00:35)
Hello, name is Kate Royer I'm talking to guests about their volunteer work.
today our guest is Ashley Hammer.
Tell us about your volunteer work.
Ashley Hammer (00:48)
I think you were wanting to hear about Feed Evansville. Okay, I started out as a volunteer for Feed Evansville, which is a group that started in 2020, whenever COVID was at its height and people were struggling to be able to feed their families. So we were, because of the shutdown of the school lunch programs and the school breakfast programs.
Cate (00:51)
Yeah.
Ashley Hammer (01:14)
We were handing out sack lunches, putting together sack lunches and backpacks for families that they could access through the school system. And that's the way that Feed Evansville started as an organization. We just kind of started as a grassroots effort to continue what the school corporation and other local
local organizations were trying to do to keep food insecurity from becoming worse during the pandemic. So that's how it started and it ended up that we figured out and already knew that food insecurity isn't just during a pandemic it's all the time.
Cate (01:47)
What's the hardest part of your volunteer work?
Ashley Hammer (01:50)
I would say the hardest part is seeing the families and the people in the community that are affected by the problems that we're trying to help with, like the children that don't have enough food in their homes, parents that even though they're working, a lot of them.
are still struggling to have enough money once they pay their bills to have the kind of food that is needed to support their household. it's not just all, it's not just families that have people that are out of work in the home. It's families that just can't afford food in addition to the bills and the other things such as medications and other stuff that they have to pay for to support their lifestyle as well.
Cate (02:34)
What's the most rewarding part of what you do?
Ashley Hammer (02:37)
I think the most rewarding part of doing the feed Evansville work is seeing the look on people's faces when you hand them a box of food for a Thanksgiving meal or for...
a lunch or dinner that they wouldn't necessarily have been able to have with their family. So seeing that and hearing them say that that, made all the difference to them that day or that weekend or whatever is probably the most rewarding thing, knowing that you made a difference in helping them secure a meal for their family.
Cate (03:09)
What's the funnest part of your volunteer role?
Ashley Hammer (03:13)
so I enjoy doing the food give giveaways, the handouts that we do. I like being able to work with the other volunteers, different members of the community from all walks of life and hearing other people's stories and sharing with the community members that we're trying to help out.
So that's probably the most fun thing. think the night before Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, Lisa, who's the president of Feed Evansville and I, delivered some turkeys to some families and some food boxes. And we went around in the Feed Evansville truck and we were able to help a lot of people that wouldn't have had Thanksgiving meals otherwise.
Cate (03:56)
Tell me about a funny or memorable story from your volunteer experience.
Ashley Hammer (04:02)
I would say like for a memorable one, one thing that really impacted me was when we were handing out meals at a local school. And this was during the beginning of the pandemic. We were handing out the sack lunches and we had...
a kids in a family that walked up and they had walked from their home to the school to get the food with their family and they didn't have any shoes. So we had a member that gave away a pair of shoes during.
that would fit the same size during that giveaway. And we also have a member that would go to a fast food restaurant or a restaurant after we were done with the giveaways and pick up some additional food for families that couldn't make it to the giveaways and actually deliver that to the homes. So I think going to the homes, delivering those.
Meals personally during that time frame specifically when people were not able to get out was one of the was one of the Most memorable things for me and the most impactful things for me that during that time frame a Funny one Well
Cate (05:10)
What about a funny one?
Ashley Hammer (05:14)
Recently during the Christmas parade, I dressed up like a jug of milk and walked around and handed out candy canes and oranges to people on the Main Street parade. So I probably have a picture of that.
Cate (05:20)
I heard about...
Ashley Hammer (05:33)
but you're not doing a visual podcast, so we don't need to show that. that was probably the funniest, one of the funnier things that I've done is dress up like a jug of milk and walk down Main Street,
Cate (05:44)
what inspired you to get involved with this particular little nonprofit cause?
Ashley Hammer (05:51)
one the things that most inspired me was the beginning of the work was seeing all of the children and the families and how much, guess, I always realized there was a great need for food security, but seeing it locally and seeing it and how it impacts so many people in the community and in all communities, that was what
Cate (05:51)
you
Ashley Hammer (06:13)
really was my drive behind wanting to join Feed Evansville. Also, you know, building it up and making it more than just during that time frame, the lunches and stuff. Now we have little pantries around town where people can put food in them. Have you seen those?
Cate (06:30)
Yeah, Gramps
just showed me one not too long
Ashley Hammer (06:33)
Yes,
yes, so Gramps and Uncle Steve helped put those together and they They're located within the city so that people anybody can refill them and then take an item out that they might need we also did a recent longest table event and that that event back in September and then
Cate (06:37)
Yeah.
Ashley Hammer (06:54)
Last year we did it in October. We feed up to a thousand people, a thousand members in the community a hot meal for free. So chicken and mashed potatoes, green beans, corned. You went to that? Yeah.
Cate (07:05)
Basically that was for like, yeah, that was for
like a Thanksgiving themed event.
Ashley Hammer (07:11)
It
was similar, yeah, so the food was similar to a Thanksgiving meal and it was in September and you gotta eat that food, so you were there for that meal and anyone could participate, tickets were free.
Cate (07:24)
That was nice. if you could share one piece of advice for someone that would be thinking about volunteering, what would it be?
Ashley Hammer (07:31)
I think that most volunteers would probably tell you that when you volunteer, don't ever expect that you're gonna get anything back. You get it back from, yeah, yeah. You do it because it's what you feel like you're motivated and driven to do and everyone has different things that they're motivated to help with.
Cate (07:43)
That's exactly what Grammy said.
Ashley Hammer (07:56)
Some people like animal organizations like Grammy some people like Yeah Did she really yeah? Yeah, yeah and actually she was a big inspiration for me for why I'm probably the volunteer I am today, but You know some people like to volunteer at school organizations church organizations. I think it has to be something that is
Cate (08:01)
because Grammy said the same thing about the Husky episode, our first one.
Ashley Hammer (08:23)
something that speaks to you directly for one reason or another. The food security thing for me was especially started during the pandemic and seeing the family problems and issues there with being able to obtain meals.
And then I have a couple other organizations that I work with for different things and those are all spurred on by personal interest and kind of just a calling or a drive to want to help in that area.
Cate (08:51)
Has volunteering changed your perspective?
Ashley Hammer (08:57)
I definitely think volunteering changes your perspective because I think a lot of us don't realize that in different areas of life there are people that struggle with things that come easy for some of us. And so I think it changes your perspective when you're around.
people who are struggling with one issue or another, whether it be health care issues or food issues or anything like that, I think it always changes your perspective to know that there's people out there struggling in areas that maybe you didn't realize were possible.
Cate (09:35)
Before you leave, what's the most likely food or meals that you deliver?
Ashley Hammer (09:42)
So it really depends. Our food that we get, some of it is donated, some of it is paid for by donations that we've received. We have a bulk buying program which allows people to get food at a cheaper rate. So we help with that. We also help with other local
organizations that are food organizations and how help with them with the resources as well.
I would say the Thanksgiving meal is probably the biggest one that we do and we do purchase some of the turkeys. Some of them sometimes will get donated from other organizations if they're left over. We also get sides donated like cans of green beans, corn, things like that. But local farmers and local grocers are also very good to us. we have say a farmer has too many peaches.
So they'll call and they'll say, well, we've got, you know, a thousand peaches, but we just need you to come and pick them up. So then we'll have a, we would have a volunteer who would, or often our, our president of the board will, will often, you know, have someone go pick up those.
Cate (10:43)
you would provide those.
Ashley Hammer (10:56)
items and then we can put them together with other items that we might have that we've gotten from a local grocery that might be neared expiring or you know they've just got too many or something along those lines that they want to donate and then we're able to put the boxes together. So sometimes it's just a grouping of leftover stuff that we've been able to acquire from local resources.
Cate (11:22)
Where should someone go if they want to learn more about your organization?
Ashley Hammer (11:27)
we have feedevansville.com. You can go on there and learn how to volunteer for the organization, how to donate. There's a button for donating. There's also more information on all of the programs that we offer.
We do have a Facebook page as well. We have a significant amount of followers on that page. So you can go there for any updates on any kind of food chairs, community food chairs that will be posted on there. sometimes we'll do Facebook Lives from those food chairs to let people know what kind of food and how the lines are running and things like that. So we also...
One more thing that I would add is that we are helping to support the community kitchen, which is located at CK Newsome Center. It is a kitchen that the city, the city, we are doing it in conjunction. Yeah, we're doing it in conjunction with. Yes.
Cate (12:16)
was about to mention that they just got a new kitchen built.
Ashley Hammer (12:22)
Yes, and that is going to be able to be used by local nonprofits who have the goal of sharing meals and providing meals for people that have food insecurity as well. that could be a whole nother podcast episode at some point. the community kitchen is another thing that Feed Evansville works with, and we're now able to keep a lot of our stuff at.
at the kitchen as storage wise so we can store more foods. We can keep the foods fresh longer for food shares and things like that.
Cate (12:51)
Do you have anything else on your agenda?
Ashley Hammer (12:54)
to talk about?
Cate (12:55)
yeah.
Ashley Hammer (12:57)
How is the Girl Scout cookie sales going?
Cate (13:00)
We haven't started because we haven't got the cookies yet.
Ashley Hammer (13:03)
Okay, okay, gotcha. Okay. All right. Well that is I Anytime you want to ask me any questions about anything else? I'm more than happy to take any questions from you Kate. You're doing a great job at this podcast role I'm loving watching your podcasts I have never subscribed to a podcast but I'm gonna subscribe to your podcast later today
Cate (13:26)
also have two episodes out. One for Grammy, the Norvin Husky one. One for Gramps, the shuttle. Beep beep shuttle.
Ashley Hammer (13:29)
I... I...
Mm-hmm.
I,
yes, I watched the Grammy one. haven't seen the Gramps one yet,
Cate (13:41)
Thanks so much for spending your time on this.
Ashley Hammer (13:45)
You're very welcome, Kate. I really appreciate you having me on to talk about feed Evansville, and I think that it's great that you're doing this.
Cate (13:53)
Thank you.
