welcome to pathways i'm jenny hartshorn your host there were others really struggling right now people can't afford housing they can't afford their health care why should they have to worry about how they're going to feed their families well guess what there's a place out there that i found out about that's helping these hardworking people feed their family so let's go check it out when i first arrived at bentley community services i was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful surroundings i couldn't help but smell the fresh herbs that remind me so much of summertime from the warm welcome to the fresh gorgeous flowers to the variety of meats i knew then this wasn't your typical food bank who could resist all this fresh food i certainly couldn't i was so excited to sit down and find out how this whole place operate i'm dorothy stern's homes and my husband is brant holmes and we're founders of bentley community services and we started this because so many sam lees in need though employed  that can't are not able to receive assistance is our in need of help and so we started this for them and what we do is we create access to healthy foods facilitating healthy  and nutrition for these families offsetting their grocery bills each week where they get on the fast track to recovery our clientele families are diverse they come from all ethnic backgrounds and they're there in whole two parent households single parent households there's a rise of single parent households whether it's the mother taking care of the children or the father and these they will all work some work two or three jobs and they come from all different vocations every single type of job you could think of our clientele families work at and what we do is we run around with our vehicles and we have a box truck large vehicles to pick up foods from truly incredible providers generous providers that we have the products come back to our warehouse we have a lot of scheduled volunteers helping us including families that want to give back and we sort and break down the food go through it and we get it into certain cold storage equipment freezers refrigerators and fresh produce we get over eighty percent perishable products that are truly healthy nutritious and beauty beautiful food and the families come weekly to pick up their provisions and fill up their shopping carts and feed their families fresh foods all week long so i started working here about a year and a half ago and i come to three times a week to help out originally i started it i found among volunteer match dot org just do some volunteer service isn't that as as i got more into the ins and outs of the inner workings i really liked was bentley's mission was to help those who are eligible for assistance but really need a helping hand because if you give the economy your circumstances and i think that's really important so that's why i'm here families is a program to help people out that is a little bit of a boast of products is really really good and i go to waste to other people that use it but they come out as work teams to our partner are generous provider farms and because we receive so much wonderful produce from our farms these companies do have a philosophy of phila philanthropic efforts and to go out into the community and make a difference so we take them to our partner provider farms and they help string and stake tomatoes harvest and pick bench to bowls weed as they go along a variety of tasks to help the farmer because we can give back to them we can't go into our retail grocers and work there and give back to them but we certainly can help the farmer and it's truly appreciated by them we come out here on a weekly basis to pick produce that snyder farms is is very generous and offering to bentley  charities the reason i get the bentley is because i think it's a great way to take care of fresh produce to people who otherwise wouldn't get it while also being active and outside and i think that it's a great way is because you know god blessed us with the ability to grow on good health and there's a lot of people out there hurting and i know what it's like to hurt and  our incredible partner corporations that help us in many ways which is bloomberg bristol myers squibb johnson and johnson  agencies i don't want to name them all i know i'm leaving out but our major employee volunteers helping hands come from bloomberg and bristol myers squibb and we're so grateful for them been volunteering a the people who fallen through the cracks and are eligible for federal funding or other sorts of help so we appreciate the kind of service they provide and in addition they managed to give us the help interacting it would seem and working together to say help people in need in addition to providing of full wide range of diverse quality products such as all different meats poultry chicken seafood turkey we have we rescue fresh flowers and plants and we process them and the families go home with this this is something where they don't have disposable income for so pockets of color and enjoyment all over their home is is something that they were truly appreciate we have fresh vegetables and fruits as you could see a whole wide variety of quality bakery and desserts and we also carry a wide range of the typical household staples of nonperishable products that are better and can boxed and bags but even those are high quality even those are organic and we are so blessed and grateful to receive this and in addition to providing foods weekly to the families that come to our facility to pick it up and shop first of all they do have the freedom to shop and make choices maintaining decision making based on their family's needs so that that's wonderful and what we also do is we offer informative educational workshops throughout the year intended to move these families forward  how we verify is they attach copies of their last two paychecks all income coming into the household and it shows on their application how they're struggling how much debt they have car loans student loans credit card debt tuition and it shows their household income and there they really are struggling and they are not able to receive any of the traditional assistances that are out there so this is the type of clientele families that me married mother of four been a client of bentley for three years he's a hard working mom holding down two jobs like other families who fell into hard times do which other places do not other organizations do not is we pray and give thanks to god in the universe for every family this is something that they truly wanted approximately five members per household and we have families that live in extended households with seven eight or nine even ten it's just the way it is these days so the great thing about our program is everybody receives their fair share but we are able to provide food for all these large families and there really is no limit they shop week to week based on their own family's nee so there's enough food to go around for three meals a day and even more for everybody to eat a very healthy nutritious fresh healthy meal we are unique and innovative and we are different than your traditional food pantry or a food bank because first of all the target population of who we serve but more importantly we have a corporate culture of stewardship integrity and different type of accountability and volunteerism that we have built into this program our families are so thankful of the foods they received in their time of need each week that they write thank you notes on rotation to all of our generous providers giving them thanks in their thank you notes letters cards of gratitude they want to do that not just not about distributing food and it's not just about food we're about ninety percent people ten percent food this bently is a place where people come and feel connected everyone here serves one another they're happy they help one another here it's amazing to see everyone talks an interest is their shopping trip where we empower people with the tools they need to move forward the feelings of humiliation and degradation are taken away when they come into our doors we treat everybody the same with respect regard and value and they are individuals that have talents and gifts so we are a social change model and powering these families with educational workshops and a place where they could come that is private and confidential where on we lease an entire private property for the privacy of our client type of clientele we have but it's a very happy positive experience when they come to pick up foods i've been through so much so if i'm trying not to say they they start paying down their debts make a much needed repair medical co pays down and they're all in some type of financial crisis and they are in food insecure households because they can't afford the healthy fresh foods the cost of groceries healthier foods cost more money and they just can't are more expensive and they just can't afford it so we provide that for these families and they save quite a bit of money we also have our families keeping track of their products progress and twice a year they hand in progress reports which shows the measurements and results and their progress twice a year june first december first and we take that data into percentages and we can track who how many families eliminated a credit card who made a costly repair what's the percentage of how much they paid down on the student loan we have all those figures which is great families coming shop regions every week and the only that's all we can do is to actually try and display so much of  is something out there for families and it's bentley community services and we don't want families to feel any of the humility humiliation or feelings of needing help we would like them to choose and make their own decision upon meeting us and seeing just how we do this program it's done in such a way that we're totally different from everyone else we're the only ones that do what we do around here and you  afraid to come forward and ask for help there shouldn't be any feelings of frustration or degradation or humiliation for seeking help everybody if you need help with anything you should seek help and we're just asking them to seek help from us for relief for their families ok that's our job or today we'll see you next time