WOODFORD CO., Ky. (LEX 18) — Along Main Street in Versailles, Spark Community Cafe has been a welcoming restaurant with a special purpose since 2019.
Mark Molla, a volunteer at the cafe, describes how the nonprofit brings people together from all walks of life. "All the volunteers. All the people that come in, we see on a regular basis and those that are coming in as tourists," he said.
The cafe made its mission to address food insecurity, which impacts 8% of people in the county, by ensuring hungry people could be fed.
"To see that on the rise in our community. Our community wanted to step up and support Spark," Whitney Stepp-Gay said.
Stepp-Gay, board chair for Spark Community Cafe, explained that this year, the organization had to make a difficult decision between keeping the doors open or closing them for good.
"Expenses are up. Especially food costs. Folks don't have as much as they've had in the past. It came down to a point we had to choose the mission," Stepp-Gay said.
During its operation, Spark Community Restaurant logged over 20,000 volunteer hours and served more than 90,000 meals to help address food insecurity in the community.
"It's bittersweet because the mission continues. I know it continues. My hope is that with us making this move, our community will understand that our board has done a good job making it look easy, but it's not," Stepp-Gay said.
Despite the restaurant closing, Spark Community Cafe plans to develop new approaches to serve the community and ensure no one goes hungry.
