Marcella’s Kitchen volunteers serve lunch during the organization’s sixth anniversary celebration in May in Draffenville. The nonprofit group is expected to close Friday on a new location at the professional building on the former Marshall County Hospital Campus at 9th Street in Benton.
Marcella Perkins had a vision that she could bring a little comfort to those in need with a good meal when they had no means to eat otherwise. More than six years and 100,000 meals later, she says it’s a vision that remains incomplete.
Perkins knows she and the volunteers at Marcella’s Kitchen can do more and will in the near future. The community volunteer-based kitchen is in the process of purchasing the former medical office building on the campus of the old Marshall County Hospital on 9th Street in Benton. Marcella’s Kitchen Board of Directors are expected to close on the property Friday, according to a statement issued to Marshall County Daily by event coordinator Jay Staten. The board intends to renovate the building, which once contained six standalone doctors’ offices, and convert it into a full-scale commercial community kitchen.
It’s a location that will allow volunteers to reach far more of the population in need of meals, Perkins said, which is exactly what she’s hoping to accomplish. The community kitchen presently serves lunch free to the public from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Draffenville Community Center at 242 Griggstown Road. While the nonprofit serves an average more than 1,000 meals per month, Perkins said the remote location prohibits many residents from coming.
“I feel like being in town we’ll have a lot of people who can walk to the kitchen,” Perkins said. “Where we’re located now everybody has to drive. Also hoping that the kids can bicycle there in the summer time when they’re not getting meals at school. And I would love to have more people that work in Benton come and eat with us. So, I just feel like the location will … be more convenient for most people.
“I don’t think we’ve reached everybody that needs to be reached yet,” Perkins added. “That’s why I’m hoping when we get closer into town that we’ll be able to reach more people. We haven’t near gotten out to Hardin or Aurora area, which I know there are a lot of needs out there. It could be that we could run vans out there later on. I would just like to saturate this county with those meals if I could.”
Perkins said the organization had established a building fund some time ago to set back a percentage of donations for the building purchase, and the board had looked into a number of locations before determining on the new location.
Staten said the board would launch a capital fundraiser to bankroll renovations, which Perkins said would be extensive and could take about a year to complete.
“It has no kitchen in it,” she said. “… It was six doctors’ offices in that building; so, every office was self-sufficient. They had their bathrooms, their labs and everything an office would need. So, the majority of all the walls will have to come down. So, we’ll have to start from a shell and go from there.”
Though it will take a great deal of patience and preserverance, Perkins said she knew volunteers would reach their goal. The community had stepped up to make her vision a reality in progress, and Perkins said she had been blessed to see it grow.
“I started working in Paducah with Sally Michelson at the community kitchen there, and I worked with her a couple of years and somewhere along the way I got to thinking, wonder if Marshall County needed a kitchen like this,” Perkins said. “When we had our first meeting at Woodmen of the World building – I believe that was probably January of 2011 – the lord has kind of taken over. Churches have gotten involved and organizations. We have kids, Boy Scouts, I mean everybody has just been absolutely awesome to support the kitchen in the community. It’s definitely Marshall County community kitchen.”
In the meantime, the community kitchen will continue its standard operations at the Draffenville facility. Buses from five community churches and one from the kitchen will shuttle residents to and from the facility, a service that Perkins said will continue even when the kitchen moves locations. The kitchen will also hold its grocery giveaway – wherein residents can come to the kitchen and receive a bag of groceries – at Christmas time. The kitchen will begin collecting non-perishable food items to prepare for the giveaway in the coming weeks.
The nonprofit organization will hold its next big event, the annual Empty Bowl Project dinner and silent auction, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 at Marshall County High School commons area.
Tickets are $15 apiece, and all proceeds go to benefit Marcella’s Kitchen.
Those unable to attend the fundraiser can still contribute, however. Perkins said donations were always needed and welcomed.
“I don’t even know at this point what all we’re going to need,” Perkins said. “Of course, we’re going to need a lot of things to start a commercial kitchen. … We’re going to need a lot of equipment like that, so any monetary gift would be great. And we try to be good stewards with what God gives us, and I think that’s why we have the building fund to begin with.”
Volunteers are always an asset at the kitchen, as well. The community kitchen staffs five to seven volunteers per shift on a two-week rotating schedule. Interested parties may visit the kitchen between 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to inquire about volunteer opportunities.
To contribute funds, donors may visit the kitchen or mail checks to Marcella’s Kitchen, P.O. Box 272, Benton, KY 42025.
For more information on Marcella’s Kitchen, find it on Facebook.