Phillip Trent was living in Hart County and running a dairy farm when he had what he calls a conversation with God where he was told to go to “Rhema.” The only problem was, he had never heard the word before, didn’t know what it meant or even if it was a physical place. The word is Greek for utterance or “things said,” and upon consulting a pastor friend, he found out the meaning, and a little more.
“He told me what it meant and then he said, it’s also a Bible College in Oklahoma. And then I knew what God was telling me,” Trent said.
A Farmers RECC member, Trent is the third place winner in the 2023 Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Who Powers You Contest. He’ll receive $250 for his win.
The rest of Trent’s story, after selling all of his possessions, his farm, his cows and equipment and moving his family to Oklahoma to become a pastor, started in 1984 when he became pastor of Immanuel Ministry Church in Horse Cave. His heart for service to others led to Trent becoming the director of the Abundance of the Hart food bank in 2000. Small at first, it’s now the largest food bank in the county, and one of the largest in the region. Much of the food comes from Feeding America, but also food drives. It varies each month but includes vegetables, meat, canned and boxed goods and sometimes eggs and milk.
“When we first started, we picked up the food in a pickup truck. A few months later we graduated to a lawnmower trailer, then to a full-blown trailer, and then more trailers,” Trent said. Eventually a senior program was added.
The food bank, a certified member of the Feeding America agency, distributes hundreds of thousands of pounds of food per year. Since 2000, the food bank has distributed nearly 5 million pounds of food. Around 500 families in the area are served every month.
“People come to me and say I want you to know how much this program means to me. We were in a fix of whether we bought our medicine or we ate. And you helped us make that decision. The food that you’ve given us have gotten us through this crisis,” Trent said.
Daily calls for food come to the food bank, and Trent said it’s not always from people who have transportation. A woman recently came on a lawnmower pulling a small trailer from more than a mile down the road to pick up a box of food.
“It is about food security. That’s what this ministry is about. And helping anyone in need,” Trent said.
Trent said his inspiration for continuing to run a labor intensive food bank at age 74, well past the age that most folks retire, comes straight from the Bible. “Jesus said I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was in prison and you visited me,” he said.