Deacons Discussions Drinks
Deacons Discussions Drinks
#25 - AMEN House Version - Michelle Carlisle and Larry Oser
The Deacons sat down with the Executive Director of the AMEN House, Michelle Carlisle, and Larry Oser to talk about all things related to the AMEN House and the need for food and support for families in our community. We learned a lot during our discussion about hunger and the need for food in Scott County. There are about 6000 people who have a need for food assistance in Scott County. Currently, only about 4000 of those folks are being served. Listen to our discussion and see how you can contribute to helping eliminate hunger in Scott County. It was a great discussion and we think you will enjoy it.
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Did you ever
Unknown:stop and think vice versa? Just kidding. Then maybe
Fr. Linh Nguyen:I don't know a single thing that I haven't noticed.
Unknown:When I see you my heart starts racing. I don't know. Brown.
Tim Stout:Today is October 9 2020. Friday the 27th week in Ordinary Time, and you are tuned in to deacons, discussions and drinks
Unknown:so much that when I see my heart starts racing, I don't know if it's the same for my hands start shaking.
Tim Stout:Good evening, everybody. Welcome to another episode of deacons discussion and drinks. I'm Deacon Tim Stout. I'm fuddling when there is no Deacon Dallas Kelly tonight. He has the night off. Well, not really. He's. He's at a wedding. Oh, oh, look at that. We got we got feedback. Now we got it. Got a mute everything else. Now he's in one at a wedding in Louisville tonight. So we asked him to call and he said no. So Oh, well. Hey, we're back back live in studio tonight. And it's kind of a different I we got two guests with us tonight. One that should be very familiar to you, Mr. Larry. Oh, sir parishioner and the person who put together and manages the fill the truck program we see at least twice a month, if not more. And we also have with us the executive director of Ayman house Miss Michelle Carlyle. Welcome to the show.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:Welcome this, Joe. Yeah. Thanks for the invite.
Larry Oser:Thank you very much for the invite.
Tim Stout:Yeah, I'm excited about it. How about you father, you excited about it?
Fr. Linh Nguyen:Well, finally be able to bring them here to talk about it. Right.
Tim Stout:Exactly. Well, not a question we've been given, given food for how many months now? 3838 months. So that's a lot longer than we've been doing the show 38 months the parishioners of St. Francis and john have stepped up to the call. They've already exceeded by expectations by miles. Well, we'll get into that in a little bit. For sure. We're gonna skip our current events. That's all right with you. I mean, there's all kinds of current events to talk about from the fly and the Vice President's hair to the cancellation of the next debate. But we'll we'll just skip all that stuff. And go right into the fun stuff. The fun stuff, the amen house. Michelle, you're the executive director. How long How long have you been at Damon house?
Michelle Carlisle:Sure. I've been there for about four and a half years at this point already. already.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:I know I don't remember when your first game.
Tim Stout:You do or no? I do. Yeah. So
Michelle Carlisle:Time flies.
Tim Stout:So for the average person out there that if they didn't know anything about a madhouse How do you describe what a madhouse is?
Michelle Carlisle:Sure. We are your local food pantry. We have one mission, and that is ending hunger right here in Scott County. And, you know, when
Tim Stout:I think a lot of people in Scott County, they don't know that there's a hunger problem here.
Michelle Carlisle:I didn't know. Like I really, really didn't. Like if you ask me how I got here and how I got involved. I was kind of blindsided. by a third grade teacher,
Tim Stout:so are you from Scott County originally originally, so that
Michelle Carlisle:county feels like home. But now I grew up in Western Kentucky. And we moved here for school and got married here and and lived in Lexington for a while. And then when my kids were old enough to go to school, we started looking at options and really liked the Scott County school system and thought that would be a good fit for our kids and our family. And so we moved to Scott County at that point. And really, I was just doing life, I had two kids, I started a business, I used to own car and run Karloff photography. So I was a photographer in my previous life. And really just, that gave me the flexibility to get involved at school. And so when lemons mill opened up, I was invited to be part of the Family Resource advisory panel there. And within moments, like I got some big life lessons, you know that we've had this big, beautiful school that had just launched and my little third grader was going to class every day. And literally in that first meeting, the teacher just broke my heart. I mean, she literally broke into tears in the middle of the meeting and said, We can't wait another two months to get a backpack program going at lemans mill, the kids in my classroom are hungry today. she happened to be my son's teacher, well, and I kind of had a Okay, like Not on my watch kind of moment. And I literally just said, we're starting to backpack, like we're figuring it out. I don't know how it's gonna happen. But we're starting to backpack like today. And that just became like this snowball effect of me getting involved in Food Rescue and really looking at the hunger because you nailed it. It's really, really easy not to see it in Scott County, you can go through your entire day, your entire life. Like I said, I was I would live in mine and just happy and just fine. And then I think when you're faced with that moment where it's in front of you, you have to make a choice. And you can choose to do nothing. And that's a choice. Melissa is we just kind of Oh, it's too big. It's too hard. Somebody else's supposed to be doing this. And that's a choice. You know, it's not a choice that you think about a whole lot. But if you're choosing to do nothing or to just look away, that's a choice to in my world, I made a choice to get involved. And it has completely changed my entire life. Like I've shut down my business, I do this full time. Now. I'm not just a little bit involved in fighting hunger. It's my passion. It's what drives me. It's why I get up in the morning. And I truly, truly believe that nobody should be hungry here. Not in Scott County. We have enough.
Tim Stout:And I think that's one of the things that surprises me so much. Is that the need? Obviously I did a little bit of research before and read Charles website and some of the stats, sir. I think it most most people. There's two sides of Scott County, the part that I think that people see. And then there's this other side. And I think we even see today when we talk about crime, you know, there's some uptick in crime in Scott County in the last few months, could be related to the pandemic or whatever, people are surprised. But crabs always been a part of Scott County just kind of been hidden in the way. And then hunger obviously, has been here a while it just didn't show up, you know, four and a half years ago when you started your journey. So did you. Was there a man house already in place in? Or did you help establish that with
Michelle Carlisle:Nova? No, no, no. Okay. I came in later. Okay, I'm at the Ayman house is 30 years old. Wow. So it was established in 1990. Really just the heart of this community. The churches brought it together and said, We need one location that can do this and do this well. And so No, I was not around when it was established. But I'm so very thankful for the hard work that was put in, that brought this concept together. It was handed off to me at a beautiful, beautiful point where so many things were coming together. And then I was able to take the hard work that had been that had come before me and just say yes, and yes and yes to those next steps. And then we have a very, very strong food supply and a very, very strong food pantry. Because of years of dedication to volunteers after volunteers just fighting hunger, Helen St.
Tim Stout:John's been involved. That's not not Larry's part of it, because we'll get to Larry's part of it. But as St. John's been a supporter, they've been house for a long time, a long time. You know, I don't know.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:I'm saying that similar support started. But I think
Larry Oser:I think they've been involved. Not to the extent it was.
Tim Stout:Yeah, the involvement today is on steroids. Yeah, you took it up a notch. So How many churches are involved with m&s?
Michelle Carlisle:We have, yeah, you're gonna put me on the spot number,
Tim Stout:oh, well, you can estimate
Michelle Carlisle:Beautiful, beautiful support from our churches, we really do, we probably have upwards of 10, who we are literally part of their budget, like they are faithful, to make sure that the amen house has the funds that it's named. But beyond that, I mean, so many people like Thanksgiving is coming, right. So we will see our churches step up in a beautiful, beautiful way. And just make sure that all of those Thanksgiving baskets happen. We could not do what we do without the church community. And, and kind of the, the fallout of that, because it may not be, you know, the church signing the check at the bottom of it. But I know so many pastors, you know, encourage their congregation to get involved to volunteer to, to look at what the needs are, and just those communications and then sharing about the amen house, then that ripples effect to you know, Christians in our community, who are faithful to just support us themselves.
Tim Stout:So so is your level of outreach? Does it does it match demand? Are you still not meeting the demand of what the what, what the community needs.
Michelle Carlisle:So while I would love to just sit here and say, Oh, we've got this all figured out. And probably one of our toughest conversations with families, we do have something that's called a madhouse direct. And so we have a food delivery service. And it's a pretty young service, we're probably maybe two years into that. And anytime you launch a new program, you have to start somewhere. So when we started looking at deliveries, we really started looking at the absolute most vulnerable. So that turned into a lot of our elderly, senior citizens that were homebound and making sure we could get food to them. So that's where those screenings started. And we feel like we, you know, if a senior fitting that category called us and they need food delivered to them, we are on it, we have a plan for that. But especially it seems like the pandemic has just put an exclamation point at the end of everything. And now we have like single moms calling that are physically able to come get and pick up the food and take it home. They just have no transportation to do that. But we're having to look at pieces of if we really say we're ending hunger in Scott County, and nobody will be hungry here, we're going to have to look at expanding that. I do think, you know, if you can get to the aim, unhealth, like I said, our food supplies are are strong, and we can meet the daily demand. But now it's really looking at kind of like those edges. And being like, how do we continue to strengthen a man house direct and to be honest, that takes volunteers, like someone literally has to give us roughly about three hours of their month to take those food deliveries and make those happen. Me would pick it up at the amen house will load you up with food, we typically try to give you four to five deliveries to make and somewhat general vicinity. Although Scott County's big, that is very big, you know, but and then you know, you take the food out, deliver it. And then just you know, so it's
Tim Stout:kind of like the way doordash for a madhouse kind of like a mad dash. I just came up with a word,
Michelle Carlisle:a mad dash. And but if I'm if, if we're, if we're missing the mark somewhere, I feel like it's there.
Tim Stout:And do you? Do you have regular volunteers that do that part of it for you? Most definitely. So but you could use more?
Michelle Carlisle:Yes. So that's kind of where the tipping point is. It's not necessarily that we don't have the food, because we're we're doing okay, and kind of balanced that out. So that we're not doing all of those in one day, we've got them spread over the first two weeks of the month. So it kind of balances the food in house, if that makes sense. Because if they all were to go out in one day, then that would be a problem just based on the Food Rescue that we do. Right. Um, but But yeah, I mean, really, I don't know if you guys follow our Facebook page. But definitely the past two months or so. I've hit it pretty hard with the description of what that direct team looks like. You do have to be able to lift about 30 or 40 pounds, food is heavy. And the volumes that that we kind of send out. It does take somebody who can move that food around. We love teams. If you're going out into somebody's house, we do require that you go two at a time. And so it's a little you know, more complicated to find that match than it is to just Hey, come volunteer at the amen house. But we know people who love it, they have a heart for it. They're getting to know the people that they deliver to. Like I said a lot of those are seniors. And it really is a touch point for a senior who's potentially homebound and may not have somebody else checking on them every month. So we're at least that one check when we bring food that we check in. Make sure they're doing okay. Get their food to you. And then they know they'll see us again next month.
Tim Stout:So it's a little bit beyond just the food mystery. It's also presence ministry. You're, you're present with them.
Michelle Carlisle:Most definitely. Yeah.
Tim Stout:So we talked about pounds of food. There's nobody better to talk about the pounds of food than the mister. Oh, sir. Larry, yes, sir. How do you handle all the food that gets donated at St. John's. org holes in a great truck. And
Larry Oser:a great truck gets to fold and we bring the box truck. But every Monday, at approximately 830 the great truck backs down the alleyway of the a man house. And we're greeted with open arms.
Tim Stout:And we've been up until the pandemic I was gonna ask you how the pandemic has affected us. We'll get to that in a little bit because pandemic is affecting both both sides of our ministry at St. Step saints Ryan says john and your ministry amen as but in general, overall, what's the total dollars in tons? I'm gonna say tons. But we could probably do n tons now. But let's start pounds
Larry Oser:bound the food that we've collected in 38 months? 21,500 pounds of food
Tim Stout:21,000 pounds of food? And how many?
Unknown:dollars? Wow. Yeah. That's a lot
Michelle Carlisle:is because he shows up all the time. You know, like we unload the truck, and then we unload the truck and we unload the truck. But when you start adding it all together, I mean, the impact that your church is having on Scott County is huge. And I'll go ahead and say it if we could get all the churches to do what St. JOHN does for us. Oh, my goodness, like we wouldn't have to worry about a thing.
Larry Oser:So also supposed to have a field that drug competition between churches, right? I originally about a year, year and a half ago tried to get it started. I got two or three churches that said that they were interested, he would get involved. I explained to them what I do, and told them that I'd be willing to come to their church and show them how to do it. And I got that far. But he never came back with a definite yes.
Tim Stout:So you need we need another Larry. Oh, sir, at each one of these churches, which is hard to do. I'd say it's impossible myself. But there's people out there that have the
Larry Oser:same spirit that you have. I'm sure there are.
Tim Stout:So we just had to find them. That's exactly right. I mean, if if we had five churches in in sky K, do we do? Would hunger be a non issue in Scott County at that point? You think?
Michelle Carlisle:I think it would go a long way. Yeah,
Fr. Linh Nguyen:but the issue is here to raise awareness. Right, Michelle, it's so many people do not know, you know, Scott County, one of the wealthiest county in Kentucky. And we have the most pretty highest population of hunger, homeless homelessness, and we don't talk about it. I remember when I came here that one of my first strictures was get all my brother minister together, and I don't want to talk about it. I said, Come on. So finally we able to pull together and Michelle came along. You did an excellent job. You have a great sense of we're gonna talk about the
Tim Stout:pastor's of different churches
Fr. Linh Nguyen:here in Scott County. Yeah, we don't just don't want to talk about this issues. And we have an influx of a new group of pastors very passionate. And they take very seriously on this social justice matter. homelessness, taken very seriously. And so Michelle came just in time, you know, pretty much like God, probably danger, right? So how God knockin certain people.
Michelle Carlisle:God had a whole lot to do with me showing up here.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:Mr. Also, Sam thing he came home one day, right? It just came down Florida, and they say, Father, I want you to do this. Sure.
Michelle Carlisle:You guys met Andrew Brown?
Unknown:Yes. Yeah.
Tim Stout:So so you just came home one day and you said, Hey, I want to do this. I mean, something had to something had to trigger you to want to do this.
Larry Oser:Let me explain what happened. My wife and I haven't been blessed for the last 15 out of the last 16 years. We've been able to go to Florida for the month of January, February, March. We stay in a community of about 800 people they have for the same period of three months. And one year, one or two fellows came to me, fella by the name of drew Whittaker, who's a resident of Canada. He said Larry said, I'd like to get start and see if we could get the people at Camp Florida to donate to Manor, which is the food bank in Lake Placid, Florida. And he said what we'd like to do is he said everybody comes to the clubhouse on Thursday morning. And the reason they come to the clubhouse on Thursday. Morning is to get free coffee and donuts. So here we have 200 300 people that come in for free coffee and donuts. He said, why don't we start a program? Call fill the truck. I said, What do you want do he said, well we're gonna do is he said, Well back my pickup truck up in front of the clubhouse. And for the period of two hours from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock, we're going to tell people that we're going to be there that Thursday. And we just did it once a season. So only did it once every three months. And he said, in that two hours, he said, we won't get people to fill his truck. Once we fill this truck, we're gonna take it over the matter. And go give it to them. I said, Well, we can spread the word. So we got the word going, told people we were going to be there. First, first time we did it, half the truck. Next month, the other three quarters of the truck. Next month, we got full truck, old truck. Next year. We just that we did it again. Got loaded up, took it down to man. So when that started work down there, I came back to Father, I said, Father, I'd like to do this. So what I want to do is I want to start a program that we started in Florida. And we all call it fill the truck. And we're going to do once a month. And I said the important thing about it is I need to be able to make sure I communicate with the people in our church. What we're going to do, how we're going to do it, and we need to do it. And then after we do it, we need to show them the results. And that's exactly what we've done.
Tim Stout:And you've been religious about it. Right? religious about you. I don't think you've missed many Sundays. And you've always wanted when you were supposed to be there to tell us what we were going to bring. Right? A week before and being there to collect. I think you missed a couple and you got a good surrogate when you were going for peanut, peanut butter, peanut butter, some some
Fr. Linh Nguyen:kid calm nickname is meant to peanut.
Larry Oser:Yeah, what had happened was the first winter that came up after I started the program in August. I told my wife and I told Father, I said, I can't leave here and January, February, March and tell these people, you all take care of that program. But I want credit for it. And then I'll be back in April.
Unknown:So
Fr. Linh Nguyen:I don't know you. You've been you've flown back
Larry Oser:to the first year, the first year. I booked flights in July, so that I could fly back in January, February and March. I flew home on a Saturday evening, collected food. And I made arrangements with one of my companions of crime so that they would then bring the food over to the amen house on Monday morning, and I could fly back to Florida Sunday night.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:And so the thing is a doubleheader.
Larry Oser:What happened was that all worked so great. Then people came to me and said, les, why are you doing this fine up here that I said, Well, I want to show people that this is you know, I'm dedicated to this. And they should we be glad to help you out. I said, that's great. So I have three volunteers. Now. One guy takes the month of January, one guy takes the month to February, one guy takes March. And I'll have to fly back no more.
Tim Stout:That's dedication. That's what that is. And that's what makes it worth it. Yeah.
Michelle Carlisle:You didn't know that you were flying back and forth.
Larry Oser:But first year I was Wow. Yeah.
Tim Stout:Larry, oh, sir. Larry. See, that's what I'm saying? Well, we say we need to find somebody like Larry Oh, sure. At the other churches, it's it's not just what you save. It's a lot more you get a lot more than just what you see. And that dedication, I think is is unique. Obviously, it's it's made this program, outside of the folks that are given the money in the food, it's really what's made it successful. Is that recurrence that's always there. You know, we'd like to kid about the peanut butter, right? Anyway, I'll get a good laugh about that. But, but it's now it's a part. It's part of our community. I mean, it's part of our parish life. And, you know, how many months isn't
Larry Oser:3838 months?
Tim Stout:38 months, so it only takes 38 months to create a good habit. So if there's other churches out there watching. You need to get a hold of this guy, or one of us or Michelle and point us point them in our direction and let's figure out how we can get this going into the churches. That would be awesome. I think we ought to have a contest. I think I
Larry Oser:I'd like to do that.
Tim Stout:You need to bring that up at the minister Association. I
Unknown:yeah, we zoom right. Oh, you're zooming.
Tim Stout:You're zooming We need to come up with a prize.
Larry Oser:I already have the prize, what's the prize? What I would like us to do if we could get four churches, ourselves and three others. Everybody do it once a week, each month, so each church would do it, they would get food every week, we keep tabs, everybody would keep track of what they collected. And then at the end of the year, we would come to carto. For a type of get together for all the people from all four churches, get to socialize it, talk about what we've done. And then we have a presentation of a trophy to the church that collected the most food for that 12 month period. And then that trophy would be rotated every year. to whoever you know, collected the most
Tim Stout:the golden basket. There you go the golden golden basket.
Larry Oser:We can call it the peanut butter trophy,
Tim Stout:the golden basket of peanut butter, we can put whatever we want in the basket. That's a great idea. You know, we obviously we can make that happen. How many? How many people do you serve? You think? Do you do you know that number?
Michelle Carlisle:Sure. So Feeding America would tell us there's about 6000 individuals in our community that are food insecure. We, in a calendar year typically touch about 4000 of those individuals with food. So we have not, we have not found everybody. And that's kind of a whole conversation, in and of itself is that because they don't want to be found in some cases? Sometimes, I would say probably our seniors are probably the highest demographic of individuals who will just fight hunger silently, alone. And that like I shouldn't be okay. Right. But it takes hard conversations. Conversation sometimes with your pastor, sometimes with your doctor, sometimes with your pharmacist, because if you can't pay for your prescription drugs, more than likely, you're not able to pay for your food as well. And those it's just a different generation, those seniors and in the pride that it would take to reach out for help. We see it we see it often in those conversations and in trying to convince them because we have a whole different senior commodities program that's just for individuals over 60 that are living below the poverty line. And it's it's a whole extra layer of food, and just trying to have those conversations and navigate the waters of Could this be helpful? Would you be willing to try this? Those are, those are hard conversations. But we see that not just in our seniors. I mean, we see that all across the board. And things are strange at the house right now. Nobody comes inside, because coke. So we do everything curbside in our parking lot. And the I mean, the tears that has been cried in our parking lot for parents who have never been to a food pantry, that are sitting in the parking lot. And we and we try to wrap it in dignity, and we try to guide them through the process. But the reality is they have to come and ask, you know, we have to have those first conversations and do the application. And we do it right there on the edge of their car with them. Just because that the regulations are at nail, but just just guiding those families, like I said, who have never, you know, and it may, it may not be that there's no income coming through. But if they've gone from a two income family to a one income family, because the kids are at home trying to do School, which means somebody has to stay home. You know, I think there's there's sometimes a misconception that I will have a paycheck. So I probably can't go to the amen house. And that's not true. That's not true at all. We help working families all the time. And honestly, it's because of the generosity of churches in our community that we can do, like above what the government does. So there's a government poverty line and I can't use federal food if you're above the government poverty line. But when Mr. OSA brings me peanut butter on Mondays, he doesn't ask me how much money the family makes that I'm gonna hand it to Joe like anyway
Tim Stout:so on the on the federal side of it. So out of all the food that you all distribute is half of it federal federal food or what's the breakdown there?
Michelle Carlisle:Sure. It's probably closer to about a third of it. That's actually federal food. We do a whole lot of Food Rescue through like through Feeding America, which opens up like Walmart and Kroger and big lights and and local restaurants that we can rescue food that was headed to the trashcan basically. So we do an insane volume of rescued food. And then we have the federal government program which we're very, I mean, we're very thankful that we've been entrusted with that and can get that food to people. And then we've got donations that come in That just get brought to us. And then we take that, that cash that money that you're bringing, and we have a food Co Op through God's Pantry. So we can get food pennies on the dollar, compared to, to what we would do just straight up at the grocery store. And so it's a whole lot of working parts coming together. So that we have this food and really the federal government is the is the one that has the income guidelines on it. But because of support in the community, it's probably we're probably two years in to my board giving us permission. And it's all percentage based. So typically, the government guideline is 130% of the poverty level, that I can serve their food they have upped it, and during the covid to the 185. But our board gave me permission, like I said about two years ago to go ahead and serve all the way up to the 180 5% poverty level without question. That means it's a working family. And that's a lot of what we see in Scott County, is that it's working families who are struggling, you know, you can work a full time job. But if you've got two kids at home, on that percentage base of income, more than likely, definitely, if you're entry level wages, minimum wage full time with a couple kids at home, you qualify for full services, even the government services,
Tim Stout:I think that's one of the things that every family has underestimated is the impact of having everybody at home all the time, and the impact that is on food. You know,
Michelle Carlisle:definitely.
Tim Stout:It's, it's crazy how much food a family can eat when everybody's at home all the time.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:You should know.
Tim Stout:as Michelle said, that's, that's a different discussion, some other time. But no, it's a, you know, it's amazing to think that there's that many people that need help. And don't ask,
Michelle Carlisle:well, make sure because I know we're talking about all those percentages and numbers and all of that. There's a third layer that the board has interested me with. And it gives me discretion. And basically, so if you're above the 185, poverty guideline, our policy technically says you have to come and we'll have a chat. And I can promise you that there is no way you show up to the amen house. And you say, I'm not for sure how we're going to eat today, that you're not going to leave with food, we are going to find a program, we are going to figure it out, we're going to make sure that your family has what's what they need to eat. Because there are so many scenarios, whether it's medical, or like I said that two income family go into one income family like your mortgage doesn't change overnight. Just because mom has to say at home or dad's needing to stay at home, those adjustments can't be made on the fly. But what I can tell you is I can probably let you leave the house with somewhere between 200 and $250 worth of groceries that you're not going to spend at Kroger this month that you can use to hold that mortgage together or to offset some of the other things that are going on. And we've talked about fighting hunger. I mean, that's, that's the core of it. Like we want you to have the nutrition and the energy and all of those things that you need to go battle the rest of what's going on.
Tim Stout:So if somebody is unsure, should they call or should they stop by what
Michelle Carlisle:they can just show up? Our application process is very simple. And it's still the federal application process. But it's it's very quick. I know there's some applications out there that are are very time consuming. And you're not going to get approved for a month and you might not hear back. That is not the amen house flip into a parking lot. You do have to bring proof of Scott County residency, you need to bring your photo ID right now some of the regulations are lifted on paperwork, because they don't want to pass in all of the paperwork back and forth. No touch. Yeah. So we're gonna verify those things just by like you holding up your ID and things like that. We do talk about your income, you're going to self declare what income coming in through the household. And then we're going to figure out which food program we can serve you with. And what I can promise is, you're not going to leave my parking lot without food. You're just not
Tim Stout:amazing
Fr. Linh Nguyen:that that's it is about simple. Food.
Tim Stout:You know, I was, uh, I was going back, you know, didn't we used to store some food here.
Michelle Carlisle:I know. They're like, have you heard of building three? I'm like, Are you kidding me? Like, that's where it started.
Tim Stout:So you ran out of space? Oh, yeah. And has that problem been corrected? Or are you building a new space? What's the, what's the facilities
Michelle Carlisle:of all of that? You got a couple million dollars?
Tim Stout:well know, somebody listening might but you know, hey, how many out there so you need to you need to build a big warehouse. Is that what
Michelle Carlisle:we do? I mean, that's that's the dream. So currently, we have five different locations where we have things squirreled way, we are very, very blessed. And oh, fingers crossed that it's all gonna happen this year because I need to talk to the school system a little bit. But the Scott County High School Food Drive for us and typically happens right before Thanksgiving is amazing. I mean, the volume of food that comes in that day, we can't house like, it's not even possible. So that's when we had to get creative. And when you guys took possession of cardomom, it became help. I think you have room Can we borrow some of it? And of course, the church said yes. And for we have been in building three, we have been in the basement of the main building with food and just kind of based on where you guys had a spot that we could go. The craziest memory I swear of these food drives, is we got smart the second year, and figured out that we could open the window to the basement instead of trying to go down the stairs or down the elevator, we literally opened the window just passed right in Oh, no high tech, we brought in like conveyor belt. Oh, wow. And the kids were rolling through the window. Like it was crazy. But it worked. I mean, it was like the beautiful solution to where we can put this. And of course, your church stepped up and said, hey, we've got a spot. Please come see if it'll work. And so yes, we have had food here. We currently had an opportunity to have like a warehouse grant some space. So now we can actually drive the semi truck up to a loading dock and unload. So it makes it easy. Yeah, so we've said goodbye to the window downstairs. But we're so thankful that we had that window when we when we really really needed it. But yes, space is still one of our biggest challenges. It has been crazy. I'm just trying to keep enough food in the building fast enough for how it's been going out during the pandemic, we created a special food allocation that didn't even exist before. And just trying to keep enough food. The Ayman house right now we can roughly hold about two weeks of food in there before we're having to go out to the warehouse or go next door, or figure out where the food is that we can get in. So space is one of our biggest challenges. But I'm telling you, my volunteers are amazing. They step up. And I mean, even when we're unloading Mr. ocers truck, you know, it's this big old truck full of everything. And well, doesn't really come in on a pallet like some of this stuff does. I mean Lee order, and thousand pounds of food from God's Pantry every week. And literally, you know, they loaded up on a pallet. And then we get to the amen house and we back down that little alleyway. And we hand unload every piece that's on that pallet. Because in our building, you can't run a pallet jack or move anything like that around. We are very thankful for the Presbyterian Church, oh my goodness, thankful that we have that space. So I never want to be critical of the space that we have. But man, if we're going to move this forward, we need an operational warehouse. And a couple weeks ago,
Fr. Linh Nguyen:last week, we bless a new land property. Yes, yeah. Talk a little bit more about that. So people know where it is. And you know, pray for that. Hopefully, in the near future, we will have a warehouse out there big enough to operate as a should
Michelle Carlisle:that would be amazing. So yes, so we have about 14.2 acres, maybe that's not about we have specifically 14.2 acres that that human health purchased at the end of North Hamilton. And so if you grew up in Scott County, you're going to kind of think railroad tracking Creek, where those kind of meet at the end of North Hamilton on that little corner, and the amen house. And that's hopefully our future site of where we would build that warehouse. And like I said, we are not joking, a few million dollars away and part of that infrastructure like it's farmland out there. So we've got to start from the bottom and actually make all of that happen so that the warehouse could happen. But we're just believing. I mean, you know that that will be a possibility in the future. And and we've just got to keep moving on to figure that out.
Tim Stout:$2 million
Fr. Linh Nguyen:good stuff.
Tim Stout:Well, I mean, what do you think about our little Parish, doting $40,000 for food? You know, just the Catholics? Well, let's be honest. We're not the the biggest congregation here in Scott County. So maybe we can challenge some of these other denominations to challenge him. We need to get a really good trophy. That trophy needs to look special. We
Larry Oser:need to get him to step up to the plate to use the softball analogy
Fr. Linh Nguyen:that has the board come up with a strategy campaign for that building yet.
Michelle Carlisle:Sure. So we are technically right now in the middle of a feasibility study. So it's real COVID has been
Fr. Linh Nguyen:crazy study without
Michelle Carlisle:So I really think or at least what our consultants tell me is, I think they struggled honestly, to get people to meet and have those interviews. I think COVID kind of just stopped everything there for a little while. And so that process took a little bit longer. But we should be wrapping that up very shortly, and then hopefully have a more definitive answer for what the plan will look like moving forward. Awesome. Yeah. It's slow and steady, right? Oh, yeah.
Tim Stout:Slow and Steady wins every time. This is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Just like anything related to ministry. It's always the long game that we try to play. So food and the the distribution of food, is it uniform throughout the year? Or does it go up and down holiday season change things dramatically? winter or summer with Blitz has that breakdown?
Michelle Carlisle:Sure, we stay pretty steady. To be honest, as far as the demand, I will say, Thanksgiving is probably like, where we feel the stress of trying to get everything together. Just because it's like an extra layer of the Thanksgiving basket on top of the regular food. But we just believe everybody, you know, on November 26, this year should have a feast. Absolutely, you know, in front of them. So. So we're working hard to get those details together. It's it's a little different this year, I feel like I'm so tired of saying the word is different, and COVID. But it's true. It's different this year. So we don't feel comfortable having a one day event like we've had in the past. And honestly, we don't want people standing in line congregating outside of our building, waiting to get the Thanksgiving basket. So we are going to roll Thanksgiving baskets all of November, which really, really means that we need the Thanksgiving food in by Halloween.
Tim Stout:Which is just a few days away. Tomorrow, right? Three weeks away.
Michelle Carlisle:Yeah. Yes. Thanks for the reminder that we're running out of time. But it will happen. It always happens.
Tim Stout:We need volunteers to write Do you need more volunteers? Are you good all volunteers for that? For
Michelle Carlisle:the actual distribution, where we're going to slow roll it the entire month, our day to day volunteers will just add that to their allocation as they pick up. And honestly what we need is people to go buy food, just to be really, really honest. And that food is not it's special. Right? You know, like, I'm not gonna be able to get cans of gravy through.
Tim Stout:Nobody wants peanut butter for Thanksgiving dinner.
Larry Oser:Right? Yes, sir. But we we at St. John's. We're collecting food this weekend, which is only the 10th 11th of the month. We'll come back again, before the end of the month with the Thanksgiving pickup. Awesome. So we're clear like we usually do in the past. Everything that we've always asked people to do is whatever you have during your Thanksgiving meal, just bring it to us and we'll take it to the amen house.
Tim Stout:I think I got it. I'm just checking my email here. I think I got the amen house email this morning. Beautiful. said my church for for church to tell us what to bring this week. I know I saw it. I must have archived it already. But you know the list I'm sure do you know we're supposed to bring this weekend, Larry. Yes, sir. Can you tell us what that is? cereal?
Larry Oser:Peanut Butter, canned vegetables and canned fruit?
Tim Stout:And do you ever get some food down there that you're like, what is
Unknown:this?
Tim Stout:Does that ever happen?
Michelle Carlisle:It really does. Um, yeah. Honestly send them that comes in as like fresh fruits and vegetables. That we're not sure what it is. I totally thought we had spaghetti squash, which was like, I thought a little off season but one of the local gardeners brought it over. So I was like, Okay, thank you so much. And she was like, you know, that's a canary melon. Right? And I'm like, Oh, I'm glad you told me cuz I totally thought it was. What
Tim Stout:is a canary? Do you even know what that is? a canary melon. You're like a fruit vegetable guru over there.
Unknown:Kinetic mail. Yes.
Michelle Carlisle:They're in the house right now.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:Kind of greenish. It's bright
Michelle Carlisle:yellow. It looks like a spaghetti squash. Maybe a little bit brighter than a spaghetti squash.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:It's almost like a winter squash.
Michelle Carlisle:Now it's it's like a cantaloupe.
Tim Stout:I don't know. You should go check it out. Maybe you could cook some bait so y'all take fresh food to them? We do we do? Yes. So obviously they're local government. So that has to move that quicker than the canned stuff, I guess. But you'll take it
Michelle Carlisle:we'll take it. You know we're we're doing about 1000 requests a month so food does not fit on our shelves.
Tim Stout:So you'll take all foods, pretty much what will you not take from a food perspective?
Fr. Linh Nguyen:Be caviar?
Michelle Carlisle:Oh, no, we'll take that. We'll connect that with somebody, I can't take your beer. Okay. But honestly, outside of that, there's nothing. If it's cold or frozen, we have to have conversation. Like, I got to know it's been cold, you've taken care of it, yada, yada, yada. But even like, I should know when deer season is, but we have like, you know, deer hunters that call us every year and be like, Oh, I'm about to go out and shoot again. I need my, you know, my freezer needs to be empty so that my new kill will make it. Whatever. I'm not saying this very well at all.
Tim Stout:But you've painted a good picture. We understand that this way.
Michelle Carlisle:Yes, we will take your frozen venison. Our clients love it. And like I said, we're getting into cold food. Sometimes it's a little more complicated. Please don't bring cold food to Mr. O sir.
Tim Stout:Or it's good that it doesn't happen, does it?
Fr. Linh Nguyen:No, we know as flurries pretty,
Tim Stout:pretty clear. And his instructions. Yeah. Yeah. So
Michelle Carlisle:he's got this down. If you're bringing it directly to the amen house, we can work that out. But no, I mean, if it is food, and we can connect it to somebody, we will make it happen.
Tim Stout:So somebody This is Larry ocers fill the truck program at church or if they're listening and they're not part of our church and they just want to come down to the event house and donate what we can they do it?
Michelle Carlisle:Sure we are open Monday through Friday, nine to 12 with extended hours on Tuesday until three o'clock.
Tim Stout:Have you said that a few thousand times, right.
Michelle Carlisle:We're also open the third Saturday of every month from nine to 12. We're doing a low touch drop off. So not that you have to put it in your trunk. But if you would go ahead and put it in your trunk or the back of your car. Literally, you don't even have to get out. You pop the trunk, my volunteers because we're doing a parking lot check in with our clients. Some of volunteers are out in the parking lot already. So they'll just see it and they'll be like, give me a second they'll go get a grocery cart, unload it and you can be on your way in just a matter of minutes.
Tim Stout:So if you get some of these odd crazy canned goods, because I know you had to get some crazy days like ochre okra,
Fr. Linh Nguyen:my face that's my favorite.
Tim Stout:Like, okay, well but like apple pie filling. I mean, you know, Hey,
Michelle Carlisle:bring on the population right now. We need that for Thanksgiving. But for
Fr. Linh Nguyen:those listening out there, I would recommend go look into your pantry. I know you have a lot of cans. And open clear mouth clean them out. Take down do amen house all to also landing
Tim Stout:or to a card all the Sunday
Fr. Linh Nguyen:card on this Sunday. It might be wet, wet, but we bring you an umbrella. But clear your pantry.
Tim Stout:Bring it to a man house. So Larry's got the big truck this weekend. Right? Yeah. So Larry just wants to challenge us to fill the big truck up this weekend saw see what happens. What else do we need to know about a bit house? Have we ever talked about anything?
Michelle Carlisle:I don't know I just any opportunity, I want to give a shout out to my volunteers. We've got a bout typically 150 that are active under in COVID world, we have about 100 that are active at the moment. And we get that I mean, we totally, totally understand that our volunteers need to keep them and their family safe. So we did have several that that just felt the need in this time that they needed to step back. But oh my goodness, those that have stepped up, have stepped up in such an amazing way. And just I love my volunteers and they I talk about them all the time. And they just they are those words that I'm like afraid to say cuz you're recording them. My volunteers are retired. And my volunteers are a touch older than I am most of the time, most of them. And they're falling into that demographic because that's it and listen to them talk about it, you know, we're like COVID could potentially be very scary. And they are still showing up to serve. They are still in my parking lot. They are face to face with our clients, they are face to face with our homeless population. They are putting their health on the line because they've decided that the mission they're called to is worth it. And I think we need to not not forget that like I think that needs to be heard. Yeah, because they will fade away the face
Tim Stout:of God in the community. That's really what that is. I mean, it's the corporal works of mercy, right. They're hard at work. Eat the hungry. It doesn't get any more simple than that.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:That's one of the things I love about amen knows. There's no creed, no religion, no conflict. Except, love your brother. That's it. Love Your brother and sister and Feed them. No question s. And that's it that's more simple, authentic Jesus that will get imagined. so important to know that
Tim Stout:awesome stuff. Where you got any final words?
Larry Oser:Yeah, I got one final word I'd like to, as I do every month on behalf of myself and amen house. thank all the people from St. Francis and St. John's for their continued support generosity. Please keep up the good work because you're doing a tremendous job.
Tim Stout:Amen, amen. show any last words?
Michelle Carlisle:Thank you.
Tim Stout:There you go. Simple as that.
Unknown:Hey, man.
Tim Stout:Hey, let's uh, let's go say to the day we do a little thing at the towards the end of the show about saying of the day cuz you know, we're Catholic. So we've got all these saints kind of right here from St. bobbleheads. I don't have this one up front there. No, he's, he's not there. This one's this one goes all the way back to 250 ad. This is like, you know, third century real close to probably knowing some of the apostles. people that knew the apostle so you know, right, right there in a time. So, here we are with
Michelle Carlisle:this Commedia saint of the day for October 9. Today we celebrate St. Denis and companions. We know little about today's saint, other than he was born in Italy. He was the principal patron of France, and he was the first Bishop of Paris. Beyond that the facts are unclear. The best hypothesis is that around the year 250. Dennis and several other missionaries were sent by the pope to evangelize Gaul, which includes modern day France. They were so successful that they were ultimately arrested, imprisoned and beheaded. This occurred during the persecution of the Roman Emperor hilarious, who in 258, ordered all bishops, priests and deacons to be executed immediately. The bodies of Dennis and his fellow church leaders were thrown into the river, but later recovered, a chapel was eventually built over their graves that centuries later became known as the abbey of St. Denis, many French kings are buried there. What are we to make of this mixture of fact and legend about St. Denis, we can only conclude that the deep impression this saint made on the people of his day, must have resulted from a life of unusual holiness. So much so that the church has never forgotten him. There's more about the saints along with inspiration and Catholic resources at our website, Saint of the day.org. From Franciscan media. This has been st of the day,
Fr. Linh Nguyen:but unique the David Tate one unique about St. Denis the nigs. Dennis, after he got decapitated, okay. All right. He carry his head for two mouths and preach the good news.
Tim Stout:Okay, okay.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:That's why we get the legend of the swordsman. Atlas swordsman? edlen. Headless Horseman?
Tim Stout:Yeah. I think it's amazing that the emperor of hilarious wanted to execute all the bishops, priests, deacons. Let's get rid of all cleaned them out. That's what we do. And we we talk about it's hard to be a Christian in the us today. Sorry, it's not that difficult compared to what we've, we've experienced. Hey, next week, we don't have a guest yet. So we're still working on that. But we came up with pretty good guests this week that Oh, yes. Awesome. So thanks to Steve, our producer over there behind the technology for suggesting Michelle is great. Great to have you here today. We'd like to give our guests just a little token of appreciation. So I got to get for both of you. Larry, I have for you a Knights of Columbus rosary. Okay. And rugged rosary form that you'll never need another rosary and from show I have for you just hot off the presses. Sorry, this is a says word on a word on fire Bible. But it's actually just the Gospels and this is by Bishop Baron. You want to kind of maybe explain Bishop Baron just a little bit for people that may not be Catholic that understand what he does and what his ministry is.
Michelle Carlisle:Yeah, talk to me.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:Bishop robber baron was a systematic theologian by Professor actually from in Chicago. And his passion is study deep, how to evangelize to a new culture, social media for him. In order for us to strive conversation, we have to look at the beauty of what God is beauty in each other. And then we have stock compensation. That Bible is very unique. Most of his interpretation is in it. Beautiful inscription writing a lot of commentary and commentary, his writing, he developed an institute called the word on fire.org. And that also happened institution at the institute right now actually helped people educate deep into the Christian understanding and faith, dealing with evangelized the modern culture that we face right now. So heed right now the assistant, bishop to the Diocese of LA, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, I think
Tim Stout:you'll enjoy it. It's a it's a really good gospel. Just read the introduction, it'll tell you a little bit about it. It's for it's for people that are looking for answers. And Aren't we all looking for answers? Right, especially during COVID? I mean, yeah, we need answers. I think you'll enjoy
Fr. Linh Nguyen:the $2 million line from within and here
Tim Stout:it is, you you'll you'll get the answer inside there. And he's he puts a lot of artwork in there too, because he believes that the mystical part of church through its art is is God. God is in the art in
Fr. Linh Nguyen:the art taught leave you to the divine mystery. So so.
Tim Stout:So if you're, if you're watching us, you need to go to the Facebook and look for a man house like Damon house page so you can stay up to date with all their current events. Right?
Unknown:That sounds perfect. Yep. And we're
Tim Stout:gonna go first. And then if there's anybody that's watching us from Damon house page, and you want to know more about our ministry at St. Francis, john, come to our page and like our page, we we reciprocate, whether you listen to us on on a podcast, if you're listening to us on YouTube, subscribe and like but most of all, show your support today Madhouse and also show your support to the ministry. We're doing here at St. Francis, a john ssF, j.org, that's es es f j.org. Where you can contribute any way you want. electronically, no touch, we don't want to touch your dollars. We want to do everything electronically. So so you support us. And we thank you for that support. Just like Larry said, we thank you for the support for the men house in the past and in the present, and especially this weekend.
Unknown:Alright, Father, how about a blessing sound like a
Fr. Linh Nguyen:gracious guy we give you thanks for the wonderful ministry that your son call all of us, especially the service of the amen house, to serve humanity, family, neighbor, desperate need for food as you continue to strengthen Michelle area in his ministry and all of us that we could get to the glory in the work that we entrust to us by your son Jesus Christ. We asked to Christ our Lord, Amen. May almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen, man.
Tim Stout:Hey, until next week, I'm Deacon Tim and father Lin. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We're supposed to announce something. Oh, wasn't it somebody's anniversary? That's right. Sherry, Dallas, Dallas Dallas. Yeah, we almost forgot Dallas. Oh, yeah. Yes. He wanted to wish his wife 39th Happy 39th wedding anniversary.
Fr. Linh Nguyen:Happy 39 anniversary, Shami. Anybody that
Tim Stout:can put up with Dallas for 39 years, you need a lot more than just a cake or night out on the town. You need like a week's vacation at the beach. So Dallas, get with it. Take care of that beautiful wife of yours who puts up with you. So until next week, Dallas will be back. I'm Deacon Tim and fatherland. Good night, everybody. Good night.