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STAN CURTIS LOVES TO TELL STORIES, and he loves to boil them down to a catchphrase that sticks with you. For the story of how he started Kentucky Harvest, the catchphrase is “green beans.”
The way Stan tells it, back in 1987 he was standing in line in a cafeteria, looking forward to green beans with his lunch. He was 37, living the life of a “perfect American capitalist,” driving a fancy car, married to a beautiful wife, making scads of money in his job as a financial advisor. Not a care in the world.
Just as he got to the green beans, a worker removed the old tray and replaced it with a new one. The old tray was only partially empty, and Stan found himself asking what would be done with the beans. Oh, they get thrown away. Stan was stunned by the waste. Then inspiration struck: why not go round to restaurants and collect food otherwise thrown away, just like these green beans, and get it into the hands and mouths of those less fortunate?
That’s how Kentucky Harvest started and still runs today. Volunteers pick up unused food from restaurants, schools, hospitals, and groceries, and deliver it to soup kitchens, food pantries, and other agencies. Costs are kept to a minimum, and agencies can concentrate on other aspects of care. In 1989, Stan added a national network, U.S.A. Harvest, with chapters in 130 cities and towns, and more than 11 billion pounds of food delivered to date. In 2005, a further program was added—Blessings in a Backpack, which provides kids at 10 schools in Kentucky and elsewhere with take-home food for the weekend.
Kids have always been at the heart of Stan’s concern. As he explains: “If you would be satisfied with your 9-year-old son or daughter being homeless and hungry, or your 9-year- old cousin or sister having to worry about eating on the weekends because they’re on the Federally funded free lunch program, then you and I are going to have a lot of philosophical problems.”
There’s another story Stan can tell: he grew up in an orphanage in Louisville. But here he adds a twist. Having been an orphan gives him empathy for others, yes—but it’s not what motivates his volunteer work. What does? He circles back to the green beans. He was offered a chance, he says, and he took it. “Sooner or later, you’ve got to stand for something. It took that long in my life to be able to move to that point and that kind of path.”
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