Moveable Feast Lexington is a 501c3 non-profit that gets less than half of its funding from public and private grants. The majority of our budget comes from private donations and fundraisers. Instead of focusing on one or two big fundraisers a year, the organization devotes its resources to smaller, less costly fundraisers throughout the year. Fundraisers like Sunday Salons, Slay Bells, and Empty Bowls continue to not only raise money but also educate the community about MFL. For three decades we have been on the frontlines advocating for the best care for our clients and raising funds to provide that care directly to them.

The importance of keeping MFL operational and growing cannot be overstated.

Lexington/ Fayette County has the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the state, second only to Louisville/ Jefferson County. Lexington also has a large population of folks in Hospice care, dependent on the world-class medical centers located here in the Bluegrass region. The need for an organization like MFL becomes especially clear when looking at the statistics of increasingly disproportionate access to care within the city, particularly within low income, women, and BIPOC demographics. 

Community-based intervention can address health issues related to the link between nutrition and chronic diseases, resulting in helping individuals make behavioral changes. A major roadblock MFL faces is a culture of silence in certain communities where the risk of HIV/AIDS and safer sex practices are not discussed openly. We aim to not only destigmatize conversations about health, but serve as members of the community who check on our neighbors daily. We nourish, we support, we empathize, and we protect those who rely on our services. By working with partner organizations like AVOL and Bluegrass Care Navigators, we are changing the conversation around long-term care.

Alfreda Bart and Robert Morgan

Michael Thompson and Carol Farmer

In the United States, where almost half of our food is literally thrown out every day nationwide, one demographic exists that is especially susceptible to starvation: people living with HIV/AIDS. Even here in Kentucky, a state celebrated for its culinary spectrum, the late African American artist, Charles Williams, died in 1998, not because he’d been living with the virus, but due to starvation. Williams, born in Blue Diamond Kentucky, created a vast body of diverse work making a significant impact on the local art community. Williams lived in downtown Lexington, just a few blocks from City Hall.

Later that year, Williams’s needless death motivated the late Michael Thompson, a well-known HIV/AIDS activist along with Carol Farmer, to deliver leftover food from local restaurants to people they knew in similar need. With the help of other friends and activists along with the Episcopal Aids Ministry and the inspiration of similar organizations in Atlanta and Baltimore, MFL raised enough funding to remodel St. Augustine Chapel on UK’s campus to serve as their first kitchen.

After a move to St. Martha’s Episcopal Church in 2005, in April 2008, the organization moved to a building on the corner of Fifth Street and Silver Maple Way, a fixer-upper formerly known as “Nanny’s Soul Food,” a favorite local restaurant before it closed. The newly renovated commercial-sized kitchen, which was originally built as a grocery store in the 1890s, would henceforth serve as Moveable Feast Lexington's permanent home.

Moveable Feast Lexington depends primarily on the funding from public grants, private donations, and fundraisers. Though we see the rising numbers of individuals in need of our services, MFL continues to keep costs low by trusting our volunteers, leadership, and staff to always put the client first. We utilize no cost services like Agency Support at God's Pantry and partnerships with local restaurants reducing food waste while increasing net good.

While HIV/AIDS care has changed radically with the introduction of medications like PReP, lingering ignorance and stigma are factors that MFL must combat daily. The same goes for our special steps in care for Hospice patients, who rely on meals being delivered to their doorstep. Complete meals increase chances of medication working hand in hand with nutrition.

This work requires a body of extraordinary volunteers. Approximately 35 compassionate volunteers willing to make deliveries throughout the week use their own vehicles and pay for their gas to ensure Moveable Feast Lexington remains a priority in this city. Thus, volunteers learn how their service makes a real-time impact in that they are helping to save lives.

Without these continued contributions over a hundred clients a day would loose  access to not only a meal but, in some cases, the only contact they will have all day with the outside world.

Mary Ellen Sloan, Bishop Stacy Stauls, and Michael Thompson

Contact

Location

474 Silver Maple Way
Lexington, KY 40508

P.O. Box 367
Lexington, KY 40508

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