WQXE News

Warm Blessings Executive Director Dawn Cash says the community kitchen has seen demand constantly increasing in recent years.

“Back in 2020, during the pandemic, and we never closed during the pandemic, we were open, we served approximately 26,000 meals, and it has continued to steadily rise to the point that by the end of July we are at 114,000 meals,” Cash said.

Cash reported on the status of the organization to the Elizabethtown City Council during their meeting Monday. She said part of the increase does come from Warm Blessings increasing its capacity to serve more, but the main thing they hear from meal recipients is that people cannot afford their groceries. A recent study from Feeding America showed an increase in the number of working families that are struggling with food insecurity.

Cash said the increased demand is straining the organization.

“This is not easily sustainable,” Cash said. “I don’t know how much longer we can do this. I will tell you, we’re investing more in food and services and space and utilities and all those things to the point where recently myself and our program director have gone to part-time because we can’t afford to pay us and pay for the groceries.”

Cash said there are people who have previously donated to Warm Blessings who are now coming to the kitchen for help, and the strain is seen in other services offered by the organization.

“We do community support services with referrals for people who are houseless, offer showers and laundry Monday through Friday,” Cash said. “I will tell you that those services have increased among people who do have homes. We have people coming in actually for laundry services that can’t afford to or don’t have access to laundry services right now.”

Cash said Warm Blessings is reliant on donations from others to sustain its mission, and is working on developing new revenue streams. Upcoming events include a golf scramble on August 30 and a craft fair on September 12. Visit www.warmblessings.org for more information.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday.

Judge/Executive Keith Taul recognized Deputy Judge/Executive Vicki Meredith, who will retire from the position this Friday. Taul said Meredith agreed to come out of retirement for one year to help Taul as he took office, and she ended up staying a year and a half.

“Her background and all the projects, being a county engineer for 15 years, were invaluable to me as I was stepping into this position, so I just wanted to publicly say thank you very much Vicki for all that you’ve done,” Taul said.

Bonnie Ciresi will assume the deputy judge/executive position Monday.

Hardin County Emergency Management Director Joey Scott discussed the incidents county first responders assisted with recently. Scott also discussed the $43,000 underwater drone purchased by the Lincoln Trail Area Development District that will be housed in Hardin County.

“This thing is state of the art,” Scott said. “It actually has a grabber arm on it, so it can also be used for weapon retrieval for the sheriff’s office. It’s going to be a regional asset, so it can do water sampling. There’s just so much we can do with it.”

Hardin County Animal Care and Control Director Mike McNutt reported that the animal shelter adopted out 62 dogs, returned 24, and euthanized 9 in July. McNutt said the shelter continues to deal with capacity issues, including housing dogs related to a Radcliff court case.

“Anytime there’s a court case, animals are considered property, so we have to keep them and we have to keep them healthy, and they can’t be housed together so it takes up 15 of our available spots for big dogs,” McNutt said.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet August 27.