SOMERSET, Ky. (LEX 18) — God’s Food Pantry in Somerset is not to be confused with God’s Pantry Food Bank in Lexington – but the two do work together.
“A food bank serves the other food pantries,” explained God’s Food Pantry executive director Brenda Russell. “While we have the same mission and the same passion for taking care of people, we're actually different entities where we serve the end user.”
The food pantry gets items from the food bank. That included a delivery on Wednesday.
“On that truck there was an abundance of produce,” said Russell. “We knew that we with the abundance that we had, we would not be able to just serve our regular families and be able to utilize that in a timely manner.”
To make sure the abundance wouldn’t go to waste, God’s Food Pantry gave away 200 cart loads of food this morning.
“Today was extraordinary and doing those free cart giveaways, we do those probably 6 or 8 times a year,” Russell said.
Today's giveaway was scheduled to last from 10 a.m. 2 p.m. but it only took an hour and a half for all 200 carts to be given out. While mass giveaways are limited to a handful of times per year, it’s a part of the pantry’s strategy to make use of any available abundance of food.
“Every day we get here, we walk through our warehouse, walk through our walk-in, we look at our projections and we determine whether we have more product that's perishable than we can actually distribute on a normal basis,” Russell explained.
If there is an abundance, if there is enough staff, and if the weather is cooperative, God’s Food Pantry will have a ‘sharing day’ held under a canopy outside of the pantry.
“We post that on our Facebook page by 10 o'clock in the morning to let people know what's outside, how long it’s going to be there,” said Russell.
That’s based on an inventory assessment of what’s already at the pantry, but when perishables come in abundance on a truck, the pantry will put free cart days like today together.
God’s Food Pantry serves families five days a week every week throughout the year. That includes providing meals and food carts daily. Normal requirements do include a proof of income to qualify for a food cart, but mass giveaways come with exceptions.
“For today's requirements, we just wanted you to have a need and to live in Pulaski County,” Russell said.
In 2025, God’s Food Pantry served a total of 97,307 individuals. That included giving out 26,849 carts of food, which averages out to more than 2,000 carts shared each month. You can keep up with God’s Food Pantry on Facebook.
