Making a Difference: The Impact of Feeding the Multitude with Nikki Gasperson

In this episode of Messages of Positivity, I had the privilege of interviewing Nikki Gasperson, the coordinator of Feeding the Multitude in Canton, North Carolina. Nikki shared her inspiring journey of transitioning from a career in law and the mortgage industry to dedicating her life to running a nonprofit food distribution organization.

Nikki's story is one of resilience and compassion as she navigates the challenges of caring for her family while managing the day-to-day operations of Feeding the Multitude. She shared how the organization started as Rose of Sharon in response to devastating floods in the county and later evolved into Feeding the Multitude, a nonprofit focused on providing food to those in need.

Throughout the episode, Nikki highlighted the importance of volunteers in making the organization successful and emphasized the impact of community support in helping those facing food insecurity. She discussed the increase in demand for food assistance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenges of sourcing and distributing food to meet the growing need.

Nikki's dedication to serving others was evident as she described the annual Christmas event, where thousands of families are provided with food and essentials. She also shared her outreach efforts in multiple states, showcasing the organization's commitment to helping those in need beyond their local community.

The episode concluded with Nikki's powerful advice to approach every situation as if it were your last, leaving a lasting impression of kindness and compassion. Overall, Nikki's story serves as a reminder of the impact one person can make in the lives of others through selfless acts of generosity and care.

Transcript

Intro:
Welcome to the Messages of Positivity podcast, where we share great stories of overcoming challenges and messages you can use to live a positive life. Now, here's your host, Norman Morris.

Norman Morris: Folks, welcome to Messages of Positivity. This is Norman Morris, and today I am privileged to have Nicole Gasperson. She goes by Nikki, and she is the coordinator of Feeding the Multitude here in Canton, North Carolina. Nikki, thank you for joining us today. So just kind of tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

Nikki Gasperson: Well, I'm a mother of four, grandmother currently of three, soon to be five. My daughter's about to have twins. Oh, congratulations. Yeah. I take care of my mother. I was taking care of both my parents, but recently lost my dad. That takes up a lot more of my time now than it used to. But other than that, I focus on my outreach in the community.

Norman Morris: Okay. So it sounds like you're pretty busy. So tell us a little bit about the outreach and the name of it is Feeding the Multitude. It used to be what Rose of Sharon?

Nikki Gasperson: It began in 2004 by Charles Williamson, during the first devastating floods in the county. And it was Rose of Sharon at that time.

Norman Morris: Okay, let me kind of intervene with Lois. So people who are listening, so Canton is in the mountains of North Carolina, but It's funny because I lived in Florida most of my life and then when I moved up to North Carolina after 2004, we've actually been hit with a couple of hurricanes. I've experienced more hurricanes in North Carolina in the mountains and I did on the beach side in Florida and a can's been flooded a couple times since I've been here so just want to give a reference to people because it's not just a small like you know walk through some water it's they're like five six feet high in regards to that so it is pretty devastating so and I didn't mean to interject but just go on please

Nikki Gasperson: Oh yeah, that's fine. The floods have been dramatic. The first one, we still have homes that were never recovered from that. So those were, those were pretty devastating. And that's what led to the creation of Rose of Sharon. And then when it was incorporated and everything, it became feeding the multitude.

Norman Morris: Okay. And when you say incorporated, it became an LLC or became a nonprofit? Is that what you're referring to?

Nikki Gasperson: Yeah, it's a nonprofit, a 501.

Norman Morris: Okay. All right. So afterwards we'll get a little bit information. Maybe people can learn where to donate the money to or send money to, to help with the cause there. So, all right. So you've obviously you've been doing this for a while. You said you started this in 2014, you said.

Nikki Gasperson: Yes, I, I took over then.

Norman Morris: Okay, so that's been 10 years. So you're fairly, I mean, you said you're a grandmother, but if people saw you, they, they don't, they would be shocked to see how young you are. Okay. Yeah.

Nikki Gasperson: All of my kids are adopted. So, um, some of them were born while I was, I see, Jesse. I just started high school when Jesse was born.

Norman Morris: Yeah, so you're pretty young. So, but let me just ask, how did you get involved doing this? Because I'm going to tell you, I've worked with teenagers and I've worked with a lot of young people and I've never once heard someone say, hey, I'm going to grow up and work with a nonprofit food distribution or a food pantry. So how did that just click? How did you decide to do this?

Nikki Gasperson: Yeah, I didn't say that either. I went to college for law. I wanted to work with death row victims, but ended up in the mortgage industry and hospitality. That's my background. And I started working at 13 in hospitality and I kept the same job from the time I was 13 until I was 32. while working mortgage, I just couldn't let it go. I was, I just loved the people I worked with that much. But when the mortgage industry crashed, I had just bought my home and every penny of my savings and my 401k was specifically appointed to save in that home. So, and I had never gone the route of government assistance or anything, so I didn't know how and somebody referred me. to go see Charlie, which I did. And he helped my teenagers, so they really eat. And he helped me out, but I didn't want to take it without giving back. So I started doing his office work and stuff like that, paying the bills and keeping all that done. And then I just stuck with it. My mom, by that point, was pretty ill so I just took over there and started taking care of mom and doing the non-profit allows me to be able to do that as well.

Norman Morris: Okay, so you needed help, you received the help, you enjoyed working there, and at the same time this gave an opportunity to not only give back to the community but also take care of your mom as well at the same time. So, it kind of seems like everything kind of fell in place there. So, excellent. So, You know, a lot of people don't really understand what a typical day in a food pantry looks like. So can you kind of and can you kind of give us a description of, you know, and obviously every day is not going to be the same, but, you know, kind of give a general description of what a day looks like for you.

Nikki Gasperson: Lord, my days start early. I was on the phone at 6.30 this morning with one of my suppliers because he got a frozen truck in and he doesn't have room for everything. So I had to coordinate that. And since we don't have tons of refrigeration and stuff like that, I have to make the calls to get it home so that it doesn't go bad. So my mornings are usually spent for the food pantry taking calls and getting the day set up and then arranging the driver and telling him where he needs to be and making sure that he has the fuel money and all that good stuff. And then once we're at the building, we take the pallets that come in and we have to sort them because Unfortunately, you can't always give out everything that comes in.

Norman Morris: And what do you mean by that? You can't give out everything?

Nikki Gasperson: Some may be too far out of date. Some may be opened. Some could be damaged. So we just have to sort it. We make sure everything's clean. The one rule that I told my all of my volunteers is if you don't want to take it home and feed it to your family, then don't give it to one.

Norman Morris: And that's a very good rule. I mean, obviously, you know, because a lot of times you sometimes. Let me try to say this correctly that people think, well, you're just a food pantry, just going to give everything away. But that's a very valid point you have. I mean, you want to treat people with respect, especially in this time of need. For the most part, they're really needing help. And, you know, like you said, a lot of people have been independent for so long. and so now they're having to rely on help and they've got a lot of pride and you know if you're just kind of treating them like sub-level humans it makes them feel even worse but to make sure that they're being treated like you be treated that shows a lot of class so appreciate that. So, you said your day starts about 6.30. About what time, I mean, so you've got phone calls, you've got organized food getting transported. Obviously, you've got to hand the food out on days that you hand out the food. I mean, how long does your days last? I mean, are you done like one o'clock in the afternoon or what?

Nikki Gasperson: Oh, so not. because there's paperwork to do and I'm by myself. I have one girl who we just recently put in place in December that will, I get the bills in and I send them to her and I was like, I'm gonna tell her I need the checks to get, I need to get these paid. And she'll coordinate all that for me. I still have to sign off checks and do all that good stuff and make time for that. But just having that one person do that one thing She feels it's a small and significant thing, but it's so not. It takes so much off my mind and gives me time to look at something else, but I'm always searching for somewhere to get something donated for some project that I have coming up. Our Christmas is huge and it takes me a whole year to pull it off and I'm so far behind with everything I've had going on personally, but my days, I am on the computer searching sometimes and talking to suppliers. I've been on the phone with a supplier at one in the morning.

Norman Morris: Oh wow. Okay. So you're talking, you're talking almost a 20 hour day sometimes.

Nikki Gasperson: Yeah, it goes all day. It never stops.

Norman Morris: Excellent. So you brought up a good point about the food. You having to go sort through the food, make sure they're not outdated, that they're not opening stuff. So what would happen to the food if it wasn't taken by you or any other food pantry? Do companies really just throw the stuff away?

Nikki Gasperson: Yes, they do. Everything that I get and distribute would be in the landfill if I didn't take it. Because I don't work with the big, without naming names, I don't work with the big national food banks for a variety of reasons. The main one being my faith. And the second main one being I'm going to give to anybody that asks me or tells me they need it. I'm not going to question that. Again, that goes back to my faith. I'm not supposed to question them. I'm just supposed to help them. Therefore, I get cut off at the knees of the bigger ones. And they have a lock on a lot of the main grocery stores. So what I get from would be, it's from wholesale distributors who probably bought it. you know, or grocery stores have pulled it, or it just didn't get bought at the time. So that's what I get. And then we have to sort it and make sure it's still good. And every single bit of food that I hand out would be in the landfill.

Norman Morris: okay so if it wasn't gotten if it wasn't received by you and passed on and be thrown in a landfill so i mean you just do you have a number of how much that would be like how much pounds or tons that we we did 489 000 pounds of food last year oh wow okay so that Okay, so 489, so almost half a million pounds of food would be thrown away if it wasn't just for your organization then.

Nikki Gasperson: Yes, and last year was a short year because it's getting harder to get.

Norman Morris: Wow, so well, this is pretty amazing. This just blows my mind because we're not in a big city, not like New York or Los Angeles. I mean, we have Asheville nearby, okay, but I mean, it's a pretty small area. And if we're throwing away, or capable of throwing away half a million pounds, I can't imagine what these other locations are willing.

Nikki Gasperson: It's astronomical. The United States is the number one food waste in the world. And it's all because of miseducation.

Norman Morris: Yeah, I mean, and I used to work in a fast food restaurant. I was shocked to see what was thrown away at the end of the night. So it's just amazing that food security is such an issue here in this country, yet there's so much food being wasted. So very good point. Thank you for bringing that up. So and you kind of answered my other question about, hey, where the food comes from in regards to wholesalers and stuff. So you don't you don't get food from like Publix or major just regular stores you get all day.

Nikki Gasperson: No, they all go through manna and That that just does not work with me.

Norman Morris: I get that so you're kind of a so there's certain food banks that have they get I Don't know if priorities the right word, but then you get kind of the leftovers that correct Right, okay And it brings up to a good, okay. So that's interesting. I just, it just blows my mind. I'm still kind of trying to wrap my head around half a million pounds, pounds of food.

Nikki Gasperson: I even get the leftover from some of these food pantries because their, their lines aren't as long as mine. And I think it all boils down to how people, and these other people that run these other pantries, they're good people. They don't set out to do anything bad. They're doing good work, but it's policies and procedures and paperwork. And sometimes when you've got somebody who's worked their whole life and they've got that And you're, you're, you're digging into their life like that. It feels like you're picking them apart and I don't do that. So that's why they come to me quicker.

Norman Morris: Okay. Okay. Excellent. And we're actually going to touch base with some of that in just a little bit, but right now we're going to take a break, go to commercial and we're going to be right back. 

AD: Hey, Norman here. As you may know, I and my partner agency, Cornerstone Senior Services, help people live a more positive life after age 65 by helping them choose the right Medicare solutions for them. I can help guide you or your loved ones through the Medicare maze to ensure they are covered. Visit NormanMorrisInsurance.com or call 828-400-1829. 

Norman Morris: Alright, we are back here with Nicole Gasperson, aka Nikki, with Feeding the Multitude. So, Nikki, we talked a little bit about this, but in the last couple of years, and of course, you know, COVID was 2020-21, have you seen an increase in people getting food the last couple of years?

Nikki Gasperson: Most definitely. When COVID hit, we were the only food pantry in the county to stay open without shutting down at all. And then my lines got so long that we had a meeting of everybody and I'm like, dude, I gotta have some help. So they stepped in and that's where the drive-through came into play. We didn't used to do that until then. And I think that not only just More people are coming, a different group of people are coming. And that's hard to understand unless you see it. But you're seeing people that, and I get all the time, they drop a nice car, why they need to come here. You cannot look at it that way. You got some people who could have spent their last money to have a reliable car so that they could get where they needed to get. Or maybe they bought that car during good times and now they're not having that good times. So it's not that my lines have gone from two to three hundred a week to seven to eight hundred a week.

Norman Morris: Oh wow, so almost two and a half times.

Nikki Gasperson: Yeah, it's increased but it's also a different section of people, you know.

Norman Morris: And you made a very good point. And I get frustrated when I hear people say, hey, I drove by, you know, because I work with another food pantry as well. And I always get frustrated when people I talk to in the community are like, well, I was driving by and I saw you helping out and I saw all these Cadillacs or, you know, BMWs and you made and the point is you know not necessarily that they're well off it could have been like you said they could have bought the car when they were in better shape financially it could have been that like they had a relative that had a car and gave some neighbors car you never know right exactly and so you can't really judge it's almost like the old saying can't judge a book by its cover but to see the increase two and a half times is just It blows my mind. In addition, it's not just you said there's a change in demographics. Is it just people picking up stuff for themselves or do you see people helping others like picking up for neighbors or family members and stuff like that?

Nikki Gasperson: There again, we do allow that. I don't know if other pantries allow that, but when you back into our dock, you've been there, you know, we just say, how many are you picking up for? How many families? And they tell us, and that's what we put in the car. So we get, I have one lady that comes that delivers up in Crusoe to six families a week.

Norman Morris: Oh wow. And to kind of give you an idea, so, because a lot of our listeners are not from this area, so, So we're feeding the multitudes located in Canton and Crusoe is about a 20 to 30 minute drive.

Nikki Gasperson: Yes.

Norman Morris: Okay.

Nikki Gasperson: And she doesn't pick up for her family at all. She's just coming for families that can't get to me.

Norman Morris: Okay. Wow. Okay. And yeah, because Crusoe is a very rural and this area actually was hit very hard by the flood that we were talking about earlier. So she's not picking up for herself. You're saying she's just doing this out of the kindness of her heart to make sure other families are fed. Is that what you're saying? yes oh wow that's amazing so okay and so do you have any like limitations you said they just and i've been there so i know what it's like but some of our listeners haven't so do you take like any demographic information do you have them fill out paperwork and you know what their income is or anything do you have any limits on that or do you just hand the food to them no we don't ask those questions because

Nikki Gasperson: We're in a county where 90% of our folks pride is the driving force behind their entire life. So when you start pulling out questions like that, they get offended. And they feel that you're picking their life apart and they don't want to do that. So we treat them like we just had a friend back up in our driveway and they need some help. We know most of them by name. You know, occasionally we'll get new people. I know we'll have new people today because they've messaged me and we just treat them like, you know, friends backed up and we're just helping them out.

Norman Morris: Okay, and to give an idea of what it is, basically there's a line and basically you have what you said a dock. It's kind of like a warehouse. And so people just kind of back in and then you ask how many people are needing or in the family and you just load up based upon that the food, correct? Right.

Nikki Gasperson: Okay. with food has gotten to be a shortage right now so it's harder to get so we break things down more than we we used to in the past because the lines have gotten longer and the food has gotten less so we have to make it go farther sure absolutely and i think that's kind of everywhere as well so yeah

Norman Morris: Okay, so I'm going to skip around a little bit on the questions. You talked about you have a person that works with you. Obviously, you're not doing this by yourself. I can't imagine feeding all those people or serving all those people in regards to that. How important are the volunteers for you?

Nikki Gasperson: It wouldn't work without volunteers. Just like today, I had plans to be there, but my mother's in really bad shape today, so I can't be there. but I have a faithful crew that will be there. So they'll handle it and if there's problems, they'll call me.

Norman Morris: And I've been out there before with the crew and you've got some regulars who are out there and they do a really good job and you're absolutely right. They're just wonderful to work with. Would you take more volunteers? Like if someone came up, like one of the things I like what you said about how you started is because you needed help. You received the help and then you thought how important it was to give back. Would you take more volunteers who were maybe part of the group or just want to come and volunteer?

Nikki Gasperson: Yep, anytime. Anytime they want to come, all they have to do is message me on Facebook and I'll let them know the times that we need help.

Norman Morris: And you kind of check them out. You make sure they're not sketchy people or anything like that.

Nikki Gasperson: Yes. They were less than intended and I never put anybody in direct contact with the public that I have not worked with.

Norman Morris: And to kind of give you an idea, actually, so the way you and I met was I was trying to work with insurance to help answer questions for people. And it actually took me a while. And I realized the reason you did that is because you want to just make sure I was legitimate. You just want to make sure I wasn't just some, you know, Joe trying to scam people for anything like that. And I, at first it was frustrating for me because I'm like, man, I'm trying to help these people out. But then I realized, well, she's just doing her due diligence. She's making sure I'm legitimate and I'm not trying to, you know, pull the wool over anybody. So, and especially nowadays, there's just so many scam artists and people trying to do the wrong thing. So I certainly can respect that. So I just want to make sure that we, the people listening know that you're not just taking a phone call from a stranger and just like, Hey, you can come volunteer that you actually know who they are. So. Excellent. You also mentioned something about different activities you do outside of the food pantry. Give us a list of some of the stuff that you do, some of the other events you do.

Nikki Gasperson: Biggest, of course, is our Christmas event. I have done Christmas for, oh, I don't know, probably about 25 years even before being over there. When my kids got to 13 years, they decided that their Christmas would be buying for other kids. Oh, wow. We did it as a family. Okay. it's steadily grown to we would do one family and then it was 20 families and last year we did 3126 in two days and that's just here that doesn't count the West Virginia kids that we do.

Norman Morris: So you work not just in Canton but you also work in West Virginia as well?

Nikki Gasperson: We work in eight states.

Norman Morris: Oh, wow. Okay. How do you coordinate? I mean, just off topic, how do you coordinate all eight states? I mean, obviously they're not, are they coming to you? Are you driving out to them? What are you doing?

Nikki Gasperson: No, they come to me. I can't get to them. Okay. So we don't have, we don't have grant money and all that. So every, every, you know, all of our money is donated through 90% my friends or my volunteers. Ourselves, we keep the fuel in the truck and everything.

Norman Morris: I've had them contact me and say, we don't have this. I used to have a plethora of everything and it was no problem.

Nikki Gasperson: Say, yeah, come on down. give you some food. I've sent two 16 pallets at a time to West Virginia.

Norman Morris: Oh wow and how much food is on or how much is on each pallet just to give our listeners an idea?

Nikki Gasperson: It depends on on what it is but they're four to six foot tall.

Norman Morris: Okay and how wide? Okay. So like a three by three square six foot high. So, okay. So that's a three by three is nine. And then another six, that's 54 cubic feet of food.

null: Okay.

Norman Morris: So 16. Wow.

Nikki Gasperson: They can weigh anywhere from three to 800 pounds.

Norman Morris: Wow. So let's say 516. That's I'm doing my math. That's 8,000. That's four tons of food being shipped. That's pretty amazing. So. So excellent. Okay. Well, Nikki, you've done a fantastic job. So if you can, I'd like you to give a, I've got one more question to ask, but before I ask that question, if you can give some contact information, how people can reach and maybe help out to you.

Nikki Gasperson: You can catch me quickest on Facebook under Feeding the Multitudes. I am the only one to get the messages, so you'll be in direct contact with me until I get somebody else in there to help.

Intro: Okay.

Nikki Gasperson: My phone number is listed on there as well. My email is listed on there and we have Venmo and Cash App. It's all on the pinned post on our Facebook page.

Norman Morris: Okay, so reach out to Facebook Feeding the Multitude. And Nikki Gasperson is the only administrator for the website or the Facebook page, and you can contact her through there. So definitely, I know you can use more volunteers, and of course, funds are always welcomed as well to, like you said, get the truck going and get these events going. So, excellent. So, last question. I ask this for everybody. If you were to go on stage and give one piece of advice to a group of high schoolers, what would it be?

Nikki Gasperson: Approach everybody in every situation like it is your last so that you leave a lasting impression of good about yourself Excellent. That's interesting treat people the way you want to be treated because in the end no matter what material things you have The only thing left is your memory of how you treated someone Excellent.

Norman Morris: That's very good advice. So Wow, so thank you nikki and thank you for your time today. I appreciate that and definitely a good words to live by. So, all right. Thank you. As I always end this message, this is Norm Morris with Message of Positivity. Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours. Thank you.