How The Storehouse Meets Surging Need In Henderson County

A hundred more families in three months. That’s the pace of need Lynn Staggs is seeing at The Storehouse right now, and it’s forcing a hard question for a growing community: how do we make sure working parents, seniors on fixed incomes, and neighbors hit by rising prices can still put food on the table? We sit down in Hendersonville, North Carolina to talk honestly about what’s changing on the ground and what it takes to respond with speed, dignity, and smart planning. 

Lynn walks us through The Storehouse’s Fourth of July fundraising campaign, what the $125,000 goal actually pays for, and why their move into a new owned facility is a game changer for Western North Carolina food pantry operations. We also get a behind-the-scenes look at the intake process that helps families receive boxes tailored to allergies, diabetes, and food preferences, plus the hygiene essentials that SNAP benefits do not cover. If you’ve ever wondered where donations go, this conversation makes it real and measurable. 

Patrick from United Federal Credit Union explains why they chose to support the project, how credit unions serve communities beyond personal banking, and why this building is designed to be more than a pantry. With emergency readiness features, a large teaching kitchen, and plans for cooking classes and budgeting classes, the goal is not only short-term relief, but long-term stability. If you care about food insecurity, senior delivery routes, disaster resilience, or community-led solutions in Henderson County, this one will stick with you. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more neighbors can find it.

Transcript

Episode Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, friends. Thank you so much for being here. This is the George Real Estate Group podcast, which is a production of our live weekly radio shows hosted on multiple radio stations here in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The George Real Estate Group serves Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina, and it is a privilege to share positive news about our local real estate market and community. Thanks so much for subscribing. And of course, if you have any real estate questions or if we can help you in any way, be sure to reach out. Visit us at George Real Estate Group Radio.com for more information.

Fourth Of July Campaign Numbers

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Good morning, Randy. How are you today?

SPEAKER_03 0:56

I'm doing great. I hope you are. Tell us about what's going on at the storehouse.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Well, we are the stairs in the middle of our 4th of July campaign, and we have our banners up out here on Four Seasons Boulevard. And we're doing we're about halfway through the campaign and we're about halfway to our goal also. Our goal this year was $125,000, and we're sitting right at $68,000 or $69,000 right now. So we're we're a little we're a little short right yet, but we still have till the end of the month. So there's still time to go online and donate, come by the office and donate, um, mail it in to us. We still have a post office box here in town that hasn't changed in 26 years. So you know, go to our website, the address is there, and we're just having a good time in our new facility.

The New Storehouse Facility

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Well, tell us about that new facility. Uh I was hearing uh this week about that place. Uh you really have found a good home, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yes, finally, and we're never moving again. And if they do move, I will not be doing anything. We have found a home, a home that we are owning, we're not renting. Um, and our partners here at United Federal Credit Union were very gracious and underwrote our whole building process. Cooper Construction came in and did a beautiful job with our building, and it is a multifunctional building. We do serve food out to the community and out to those in need, but I wanted a building that worked even when we weren't there. So this building has the capacity to be an emergency site, um, like a command post if they need it on that side of town. We also have the capacity to um do cooking classes now, budgeting classes. We've got all kinds of classes lined up, and then our friends at Blue Ridge Cabinet, he is putting in our garden in the back, so we'll be growing our own produce to feed our kitchen and feed our pantry. And Steve Wilkie is awesome for doing that for us. We appreciate him. Steve Wilkie is uh with the cabinet company who who sponsored our garden for us. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Well, you talked about uh United Federal Credit Union.

United Federal Helps Build Community Hub

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Let's uh let's talk to the United States.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Good morning. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I'm Patrick with United Federal Credit Union. So um, yeah, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to to help Lynn and the storehouse, and um what a what a facility they have put together. Um if anybody has not had the opportunity to go and see what they've done, it is remarkable, and I highly suggest it. Um always always a face there where you can go and just pop in and and check it out. Um, I know you guys are running a campaign right now, and you know, a lot of people maybe wonder, you know, what what it is that where this money goes and what you do for the community, and just by by taking a quick stop in, you will see all of what is going on there. Not all, but a lot. It is just absolutely incredible. And like like Lynn said, that was one part that blew me away was that whole area you now have where you can just if there's ever an emergency type situation, it's it's a hub. They've got space ready to be a shelter, they've got area ready to not not a shelter, but a spot where materials and things can come in and have a safe place to go out.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

I mean, we really thought about this building for a long time. They gave me a blueprint of the empty shell and told me to stay within the lines, and so for two years I've worked on this blueprint and how these rooms would work together and fit together, and they took my little pieces of post-it notes and little tiny writing all over everything, and they turned it into a beautiful building, and I'm so appreciative of them for doing that. But we are in that beautiful building, and we still need about 13,500 of our closest friends to donate $150 each, and then the building will be completely paid for. And that has actually nothing to do with the campaign we're running down here on the banners. The campaign on the banners is our program cost, it covers our food, it covers our bills, um all the stuff that goes on inside the building. And we have our wonderful, wonderful sponsors, Advent Health, East Flat Rock Baptist Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, First Baptist, Fruitland Baptist, Grace Lutheran Church, Hendersonville Church of God, Hendersonville Presbyterian Church, Reformation Presbyterian, and St. James Episcopal. These churches come every year and they partner with us with $3,000 each to set the base for the community to match. And the community always matches and then some. We've already met that match, and we are trying to reach a goal of $125,000 this year so that we can buy more food because since moving we have lots more clients.

Why Demand For Food Is Up

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Our numbers are up. We have over a hundred families more in the same three months last year as we had this year. So I'm not talking people, I'm talking families. I don't know exactly how many people, but it is a hundred families more. And we're talking we just moved and we got into the building March nineteenth. We didn't open up till April nineteenth. So from April to July, a hundred families more in a three-month time frame.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

So the need is definitely there.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Well, everything's gone up. Housing here has gone up, the cost of food has gone up, and there are so many more people here in the community, and after the hurricane, any kind of housing that we had, there was so much housing wiped out. And it wasn't just wiped out housing, the water and the rain came through and it changed the topography of our land. Our county doesn't look the same as it did five years ago. It it's notably different and it's not fixed yet. There are so many people who are still working on their houses and trying to get things done. So that paired with new people moving in, housing has gone up, food is up, and so these families that we're getting now are not just we're not just serving people who are homeless or low income. We're getting moms and dads who are working and just barely scraping by. So we're getting new families and new people. It's the the numbers are staggering, the stories are heartbreaking, but we are Henderson County strong, and we do help each other out.

How Families Get Personalized Boxes

SPEAKER_03 8:32

So Lynn typically uh a family shows up like you just said and uh says, you know, we need we need help. Where do you start? What what's the process to get help going for this family?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Well, we do an intake with them. We try to ask a lot of questions of, you know, are you allergic to anything? Is there anything you won't eat? The worst thing you can do is fill a box with stuff that they would never eat. That's a waste of money and a waste of time and effort. So we try to cater it to, you know, their specific needs. You might have a diabetic in the house, you might have a vegetarian in the house, um, you may have somebody who we'd really like fresh produce and not canned stuff. So we take all those things into consideration. Some people need paper goods, toiletries, things like that. And we write all those things down on the ticket, and the ticket goes to the back, the boxes are packed, and then we take it to their cars with them. And thus the process is just a circle, it happens again and again and again every day.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

So you are primarily just food?

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Food and hygiene pantry. We do have coats and blankets for when it gets colder or things like that, but uh with what we're doing, there are other places that do the clothes and do uh things of that nature. I don't see the need to duplicate those operations. Of course. Yes, there are lots of food pantries in Henderson County, but it takes all of us to make this work because no one pantry will ever have everything that a family needs. So if they go from us to Salvation Army to Inner Faith, we're all working together. It's not a competition, it is a community, and we are trying to help our community.

Senior Delivery Route And SNAP Cuts

SPEAKER_03 10:35

You were telling me before we went on the air of uh some grants and uh and some help that you're getting to uh to spread the mission here.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Well, we do have a senior delivery route that we have had for probably 15 or more years, and yesterday Duke Energy came in and Craig Debru came down to our office and brought one of those giant checks, and so we got $17,500 for our senior delivery routes, and that will help us out tremendously. It's about a third of what it costs to do the whole senior delivery route for the year, but a third is better than having to come up with the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

Exactly. So a senior delivery route. Tell us what that is and how that works.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Well, our seniors come to us through a lot of them through advent health, social workers, um, caseworkers at the you know, at the other little departments, council on aging, things like that. And what we're doing for our delivery people is we're taking the ones who don't have any transportation, they don't have a family, they have very, very limited income. So we're trying to get the ones who are falling through all the other cracks and take care of them. And so they get their boxes every month, plus they get their we call them goodie bags, but it's a bag that makes sure that they get toilet paper, paper towels, dishwashing, um, laundry detergent, things that food stamps don't cover. Everybody thinks, oh well, they get food stamps. Well, food stamps does not cover any paper goods or you know, anything that's not edible. And if you think you can live without toilet paper, I don't want to shake your hand. That is it it it's just impossible. And these people are living on anywhere from eight hundred to maybe a thousand dollars a month.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Have you seen uh reduction in SNAP benefits uh to folks here?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yes, and we've seen some people get dropped completely. Really? And that has been heartbreaking because transportation's their issue, they're trying to get to doctors, they're having to choose between medicine and food, and then your food stamps get cut. Uh-huh. That's devastating for them. And you know, if you've ever had kids, they're just bottomless hot pits. Children can eat their weight like 15 minutes and they want all the all the fruit in the house in the first day from the grocery store. So, you know, we're trying to help parents schools out, so that's a heavier load on the parents right now. So there's lots of factors in this community that cause it to be a great community, but there's still a lot of need here in this community.

Grants And The Mortgage Goal

SPEAKER_03 13:46

You were telling me about our recent grant for uh a hundred thousand, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yes. We have been given some appropriation money for Henderson County from Senator Tim Moffat and Representative Jennifer Balcombe, and it is for us to spend on food so that we can buy more produce, more meat, more canned goods, and beef up the boxes that we're giving away. And that's gonna be a tremendous help for us. And we're excited about that. It was the timing was perfect with our numbers going up, you know, here we are. And now that we have a mortgage with with United Federal Credit Union, which is really they're taking good care of us, but so 150 per person.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

How many people?

SPEAKER_01 14:38

13,500. 13,500, 13,500 out there with $150 in your pocket, we'll help you have a zero mortgage and put all your money that you are putting towards that into direct program cost, and I'm sure I'll have to pay taxes somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Uh Patrick, what uh tell us about the involvement uh United Federal Credit Union has with the storehouse and what made you uh want to try to jump in here? It's uh uh if correct me if I'm wrong, uh uh financing for a philanthropic organization, is that a rarity?

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Uh no, we do we do a decent amount with our community here. Um and so to differentiate, I'm my position with United, I am on the mortgage side, so non-commercial. So we have another commercial team who work directly with Lynn. We've just partnered, I've partnered with Lynn on other um, you know, talks and and gotten together. Um so I was invited to to come to this to just kind of to be a part of it. Um but the real the real team that is a part of this is our commercial unit, and they are absolutely incredible. A lot of people don't realize that credit unions work with small businesses, they think it's just their personal relationship that they can do with a credit union. Um and United Federal Credit Union, and there some credit unions that is true. Yes, that is not true with us. Um serving our small businesses is a huge, huge part of what we do. Um, you know, so anywhere from your your mom and pop just getting started, you know, want to go out on my own small businesses, um, and you just need some help, you know, getting your your accounts and all that set up to anywhere, you know, from you know the storehouse that you know has a bigger need, and and you know, being able to finance the construction of their new building has been Christmas kids. Sponsoring Christmas kids, yeah. We do a lot of that with them. I how many kids does United United?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

I think between 75 and 100 kids.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Um so that's the credit union way of doing things is our community is is a driving factor in the decisions that we make and where we decide to put our resources. And you know, it it stuck out in a big way of you know, we need to we need to do that with the storehouse, and when that um call came in, it was answered.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

That's great. And I was already familiar with everybody because we've been banking with them for years. And they own our house too.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

That's it. Well, uh you you you have multiple

Credit Union Support Beyond Personal Banking

SPEAKER_03 17:18

locations?

SPEAKER_02 17:18

We do, yeah. Um so we are right on Jack Street, 101 Jack Street, which is right next to the Blue Ridge Roll, right across the street from over here. Um, just off four seasons, and then we rebuilt when because we were in the fresh market plaza that got flooded out with Helene. So um we we got wiped out there and we went up the road a little bit to 855 Spartanburg Highway. So we're right next to closer to Lynn. Um right up the road a little bit, we're right next to the co-op, in between the co-op and and Dunkin' Donuts, right there. Those are two Hendersonville locations, and then we also have one in Fletcher, uh right on 25 across from Lulu's, and then we also have a branch up in Asheville as well.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

You do in Asheville, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah, yeah. Uh Patton Ave, I think it's Patton Avenue.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Okay, yes, it is Patton Avenue. Yeah, Patton and Deaverview, I think. Yeah, yeah. So uh well great. Uh Lynn, what's uh yeah, how are you gonna fill up this

Donations, Kitchen, Emergency Readiness

SPEAKER_03 18:15

building? You you new building, it's a big place.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

It's already full, Mr.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

It's already full. Tell us about it.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

It's already full. Well, we were very fortunate and blessed. Um the bank and Asheville Home Trust Bank donated all of our furniture to us. So we didn't have to buy any furniture for our new building. We got all of the office furniture. They were upgrading, and what we got from them was way upgrade from what we had. Um, it was beautiful and it looks beautiful in the building. So we got that donated. We had a conference table that is probably the king of all conference tables donated to us. I've never seen a $30,000 conference table, but it was donated to us, and we thank Jack Davis for that every day. It's a beautiful space to work in. But that conference table is in the board meeting conference room, which is where we do have our board meetings, but we also will be doing the budgeting classes there, and we have groups that come in and use the room for different things, and that will also be the hub for any emergency services because that room houses the ham radio setup and all the electronic equipment. I mean, we're ready, lock stock and barrel to go. And us having gas is helpful because we have the biggest water heater I've ever seen, and we've got nice showers in the bathroom. Natural gas. Yeah, yeah. We've got washer dryer hookups in the kitchen, and our kitchen is probably as big as this building right here.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Wow. It's absolutely stunning.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Um I put a lot of thought into that so that we have double stations, we can do two sets of cooking classes simultaneously. So you don't have a bunch of people around one stove. They're just back to back, and we can have two different groups on each side doing the exact same thing with the exact same setup.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Cooking classes.

Cooking And Budgeting Classes Launch

SPEAKER_03 20:25

Tell us some more about that.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Well, unfortunately, nobody goes and stays with their grandma anymore and learns how to cook rice and beans and simple things. So I get a lot of people who don't know how to make rice in the bag, like regular rice that you cook. And I think that it's a lost art. And so we also were going to be exploring doing cooking out of the box. So, all right, you're a client here, here's a box of food, uh the boxes of food that you would get with us, let's look in here and what can you make out of this? So trying to get people to think on their feet or think outside of their own box and not think that you have to go down this huge ingredient list. You need to be able to look at some things and go, Oh, well, I don't have a hamburger helper mix, but I got six slices of cheese, some noodles, and some hamburger. I can make my own. Just thinking outside of the box. And so just some common sense classes, some baking classes, you know. I cannot believe it. It is very good.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

Especially this time of year.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

It is. And it is so simple. It's a one in one in one. So it's things that people have. You know, if you got a can of peaches, you are halfway there. So just want to get people thinking that way. Um You have to be able to roll and flow and think on your feet because you don't always have the perfect setup or the you don't have all the ingredients, you know. You gotta learn about substitutes and stuff. So I I think it is a common sense class.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

Yeah. Do you have uh do you financial classes to help folks with their finance or checkbook?

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yes. We have three different sets of people who want to come in and help with that. So we're probably gonna have three different levels to do, like a beginner class and maybe an intermediate and a more advanced class. You know, to try to get people who kind of know what to do, but they're just a little off track and help them make some adjustments. So we have quite a few people stepping up to the plate for that one. And some of them are at the bank.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Some of the folks from the bank volunteer to help with that. Absolutely makes perfect sense. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

First Baptist Church has some guy who's wrote a curriculum for us, and then we have some people who have like, I've lived through this, here's what you do. And then the Dave Ramsey program, I think is I was gonna mention that. Yeah. That to me is just basic. That's where you should start. We have people who will do that. That's great. I I am not teaching anything.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

But people there who are trained to do that, that's that's a great course. It gives you uh it gives the the people everything, every ingredient they need to succeed.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Well, basics and long range goals to the vision to see forward and go, okay, I don't need to get into this 'cause I don't want to wind up here. Help them avoid things. I think is more people sometimes have never been shown what to do. They've never we have people come in who've never written their money down on paper. And that blows my mind. I'm like, How have you never written your money down on paper?

SPEAKER_03 24:05

And I think this is changing some now, but in many decades and many classes of school children that go through the whole twelve years and and never learn how to deal with a checkbook.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

That's because they didn't have Betty Oates for a teacher at Hendersonville High School. Yeah. Yeah. She she was very much a stickler for stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

Important stuff you use every day. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Um it you know, I look back at my childhood and I'm like, oh, we wrote we wrote all this stuff down. You know, I still have my mom's handwritten recipes. People just use their phone for everything and they're so dependent on that. Need to get into real textile things sometimes. You know, children need to touch things and feel textures. So I think these are important paper paper cards with recipes on them are great.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Yeah, oh yeah.

Fundraiser Story And Volunteer Power

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Well, uh we're gonna got a few minutes left here, but maybe we should recap your your fund drive and uh your Fourth of July campaign and tell us all about that and where the money goes and how much you lack and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Well, we are sitting at right up under $70,000 right now. The goal is $125. This campaign was actually started twelve years ago by a local couple who are veterans, retired veterans. And they came into our office down here on 7th Avenue, walked in, and said, Hey, we will match anything you raise up to ten thousand dollars, and you got eight weeks. And they turned around and walked out. And I came down to this radio station and I said, Richard, what do I do? And he put me on the radio and the very first year we raised a total of twenty-two thousand dollars. So I met their match and went above it, and you know, the next following year they were like, Well, we had inherited that money, we can't do that again. So we went to the churches and businesses here in town, and that's how we come up with the banners that are on four seasons. Those churches sponsor the base for this fundraising campaign every year. And we'd love to have more banners because the mad scientist loves to make banners for us. Um and I'm sure he'll make more.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

So uh and that is a part of or if not a whole operating budget for you for a year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Usually it is. I mean, because that's we only have we have one full-time employee and two part-time employees. Everybody else is a volunteer. We have 75 volunteers during the week.

SPEAKER_03 26:59

I I we can't get away from here without praising the volunteers.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Oh, w we couldn't do any of this without the volunteers. I mean, our volunteers have walked in and they have taken ownership of this project. This is their storehouse. They're very uh involved, connected. They get out, they bring their friends in, and we have a good time. We do. It's a fun place to be. I don't want it to ever be an uptight office. I'm not wired for that. Um if we can't laugh, then you can't be there.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Patrick, uh in closing, uh remind us about United Federal Credit Union.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Yes, sir. So we are your local um community credit union. I mean, we uh try to serve the needs of our local community uh from a commercial level, small business level, personal level. So um if anybody is looking for a a friendly, a friendly place to come talk about real stuff. Finances are a tough thing to talk about sometimes. We got a lot of a lot of friendly faces ready to have those hard conversations and uh exciting ones sometimes too, you know. Um so two locations in Hendersonville, one in Fletcher, one in Asheville.

Hometown Heroes Salute And Farewell

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Reminder that uh tomorrow is the George Real Estate Group Hometown Heroes Salute, and this week uh we are honoring the Saluda Community Land Trust. The uh land trust there successfully uh keep it uh completed uh a Keep Saluda Green campaign. They raised $200,000 and bought uh almost seven acres of undeveloped land right there in the heart of historic Saluda. And instead of being developed into eight or ten homes, that land will now become a park that's uh located right adjacent to the Lazy Girl Trail. And Cheryl Spencer is the uh chair of the Keep Saluda Green campaign, and she'll be here tomorrow morning at 8.45 to tell us more about this good thing that's happened in Saluda. Lynn Staggs, executive director of the storehouse. We thank you for coming in today.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Thank you for having us. And have fun, Noah, we miss you.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

And Patrick, thank you again. Y'all have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

A little steeper. The pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go? It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most. We understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transition, timing and trust. We have to families and what to North Carolina makes more home. Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to write someone, simplify or smart friends, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group. Local, trusted, proven. Celeste 828 3930134. Find us on one at real estate by Greg.com because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.