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July 23, 2012

A long tradition

Naomi Judd again brings Feed the Children truck here

Anonymous The Independent The Daily Independent Mon Jul 23, 2012, 06:00 AM EDT

ASHLAND — As it has for more than 20 years, a semi-trailer from Feed the Children that was filled with food, bottled water, toiletries and children’s books rolled into Ashland early last Wednesday to fill the shelves at the Community Kitchen and at area food pantries, to provide the needy with toothpaste, shampoo and other essentials that can’t be purchased with food stamps, and to provide children with quality literature.

And it is all because Naomi Judd has quietly continued to assure that a truck from Feed the Children arrives in her hometown each summer.

During the early years, Judd used her friendship will Larry Jones, the founder and longtime executive director of Feed the Children, to convince a Feed the Children truck to come to Ashland. Initially the truck arrived during Summer Motion and Judd participated in an Independence Day food collection drive on the riverfront. The food collection drive continues under the leadership of the Ashland Breakfast Kiwanis Club and River Cities Harvest, but Judd has not been present for it for many years and the Feed the Children truck now arrives in Ashland several weeks later to avoid adding to the traffic congestion associated with Summer Motion.

Jones and the Oklahoma City ministry he founded had a parting of the ways in 2010, but Judd has continued to use her considerable influence to see that the Feed the Children truck continues to make one delivery a year in Ashland.

“Naomi Judd sponsors this every year. She is the reason we’re able to do this,” said Bob Owen, coordinator of River Cities Harvest.

This year’s delivery could not have come at a better time. Because a recent rash of prolonged power outages forced many area residents to throw out perishable food, the Hillcrest-Bruce United Methodist Mission and other local food pantries were straining to meet the increased demand for food, both perishable and non-perishable.

“It is a godsend for us because with all of the storms so many food pantries are empty,” Owen said of last week’s arrival of the Feed the Children truck.

The truck carried 400 boxes of food, 400 crates of bottled water and 400 boxes containing a variety of items ranging from toiletries to children’s books. They were immediately distributed to more than a dozen community agencies which provide direct services to people throughout the region. Those agencies include the Ashland Community Kitchen, the Salvation Army, Shelter of Hope, Safe Harbor and Hillcrest-Bruce Mission.

Naomi Judd does not send the Feed the Children truck to Ashland to generate publicity for herself. In fact, for many years she has neither sought nor wanted public recognition for her role in getting the truck to Ashland. Instead, she does it because of a genuine compassion for the needy of her hometown.

Because of the timing of last week’s Feed the Children delivery, many area nonprofits are no longer looking at empty shelves in their food pantries. For that, we thank Judd and Feed the Children. May the ministry keep making its annual trip to Ashland for many more years to come.

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A long tradition

Naomi Judd again brings Feed the Children truck here

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