Episode 30
Guest: Lynn Staggs
Organization: The Storehouse
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Listen to Episode 30 on Spotify
Episode Summary
In Episode 30 of Living Local with Frisbee Real Estate, Ed welcomes back Lynn Staggs, founder and executive director of The Storehouse, one of Henderson County's most impactful nonprofit organizations. Lynn returns to discuss The Storehouse's annual Fourth of July Matching Campaign, the organization's largest fundraiser dedicated entirely to feeding local families in need.
For more than a decade, The Storehouse has hosted its Fourth of July fundraising campaign, which began when a retired veteran couple challenged the organization to raise funds by matching donations. What started as a $10,000 match has grown into a major community-wide effort. Last year, the campaign raised nearly $100,000, and this year's goal is $125,000 to support food assistance programs throughout Henderson County.
Unlike many food assistance organizations, The Storehouse operates independently and is responsible for purchasing much of the food it distributes. Lynn shares that the organization spends approximately $135,000 annually on food, helping provide groceries and household essentials to local families, seniors, veterans, and individuals facing financial hardship.
The conversation also highlights The Storehouse's move into its facility on Upward Road. The larger space gives volunteers and staff more room to serve residents seeking assistance. Lynn explains that demand continues to grow, especially among seniors living alone who may struggle to afford groceries, cleaning supplies, paper products, and other everyday necessities.
One of the organization's most meaningful programs is its Senior Delivery Route, which provides monthly deliveries of groceries and household essentials to homebound seniors with limited transportation, little family support, and few available resources. Volunteers do more than deliver food. They also provide a familiar face, a personal connection, and an important wellness check.
Lynn shares that the heart behind The Storehouse began with a desire to help older residents who were struggling to meet basic needs. More than 26 years later, that mission continues through food assistance, volunteer support, community partnerships, and outreach programs serving people throughout Henderson County.
How the Community Can Help
- Donate to the Fourth of July Matching Campaign
- Volunteer at The Storehouse
- Help with senior delivery routes
- Organize a food drive
- Make a financial contribution throughout the year
The Fourth of July Matching Campaign runs from June 1 through July 31. Donations can be made at storehouseonline.org, by mail, or by visiting The Storehouse during operating hours.
For anyone looking to support a local nonprofit making a direct impact on food insecurity in Henderson County, this episode offers an inside look at the work The Storehouse is doing every day to care for neighbors in need.
As always, keep living local.
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Transcript
Transcript lightly edited for readability.
Ed: Hey, thanks for joining us again. This is our first time to have a repeat guest, and this is Lynn Staggs. She was with us last year, but she's back with us now to tell us about a special event coming up for Fourth of July for The Storehouse. Lynn, thanks for joining us.
Lynn: Thank you for having us. We are excited because this is our biggest fundraiser for the whole year.
Ed: Bigger than Christmas?
Lynn: Different category. Christmas is all about the kids and the presents, and Fourth of July is all about making sure that we have enough money to feed the families in our community. So two different categories there.
What the Fourth of July match is, we had a couple that was a retired veteran couple about twelve years ago. They walked into our office and they 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.
I was like, "What? Wait, wait, why?" So I went on the radio and we started advertising. That first year we raised like twelve or fourteen thousand dollars and I was so proud. I thought I had done something fantastic, which we had, and they kept coming back, this same couple.
So they are the reason we have a Fourth of July match campaign. Last year we raised right up under a hundred thousand dollars in the eight weeks. What we do is we have corporate and church sponsors, and then the community matches what the corporate and church sponsors give us. It usually, well it always, goes way over that.
Our sponsors are Advent Health, East Flat Rock First Baptist Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, First Baptist Church, Fruitland Baptist Church, Grace Lutheran Church, Hendersonville Church of God, Hendersonville Presbyterian, Reformation Presbyterian, and Saint James Episcopal Church. These churches are pretty much our cornerstone churches. All the churches participate in town, but these churches have been with us for years and years. They comprise a lot of our volunteer staff, food drives, and different things. They really hold us up all year long.
Ed: That's great.
Lynn: This will run from June first to July thirty-first. We have eight weeks to beat the match.
Ed: And how do people give?
Lynn: We have options. You can give online at storehouseonline.org. You can drop a check in the mail, and all of our information for mailing is still at storehouseonline.org. Or you can come by the office while we're there. If you want to, we'll take you through the building and give you a tour. We just have a good time while we're there, and if it's really, really busy, you might be put to work.
Ed: This money goes to help support staff and food?
Lynn: This money is all for food. It takes about a hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars a year to purchase enough food to serve the families that we serve every week, every month. It's about eleven thousand dollars a month for food budget. That does include our senior delivery route also. We do get certain grants for that, but that covers different things for the seniors. We're just talking about food.
We are totally independent, so we don't have a discount place where we get food. We're not a MANNA FoodBank partner. We're on our own to go out and search the deals down, order, go to the stores, find the best price, get truckloads brought in, and run food drives throughout the community.
Ed: Since we last had you and talked with you, you've now moved into your building.
Lynn: Yes, and it's beautiful and it's all purpley on the inside. It's calming and it is so nice to have enough space to work in. If you were ever at our other office, it was very adequate but very congested, and every room had four purposes. No one had an office to themselves. Every room got switched around to do something else at some point in time.
This building actually has rooms that are dedicated to one purpose. It's the first time in twenty-six years I've ever had an office by myself, so I'm having to learn how to be alone. And it's not always good for me. I don't have anybody to talk to.
Ed: If I recall correctly, you have lots of Lynns that work in your...
Lynn: Lindas. I have five Lindas.
Ed: That's wild.
Lynn: So if your name is Linda, come volunteer because I won't ever forget your name.
Ed: Storehouseonline.org is how they can give. If they don't like to give electronically, they can go to storehouseonline.org and find your mailing address.
Lynn: Yes. It's PO Box 6146, Hendersonville, 28793. They can also come by. We're open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, nine to two. We are intending on extending our hours as soon as we get more volunteers.
Ed: Talk to us about that. Is there an age limit?
Lynn: Not that I've seen. I think my oldest volunteer right now is eighty-seven, and I've got down to I think a seventeen or fifteen-year-old. She's homeschooled, so she comes in and that's part of what she does every week on Wednesdays. That's her volunteer time.
Ed: Remind everybody your quick backstory with The Storehouse. You started it.
Lynn: I really had a burden in my heart for little old ladies. I was raised by my mom and my grandmother, and little old ladies have always been my deal. When I got out and got married and had kids, I would run across these little old ladies just struggling for food, and I just couldn't stand the thought of that.
That was the seed that really got me started. God just showed me how to move and go because there's no playbook for starting a nonprofit. Yes, people have formal plans and all that. That is not how my brain operates. It has definitely been a vision. What does He want me to do for these people?
Our senior delivery routes are for people who are just out there by themselves. They have to be over sixty, no family, no transportation. They're dropping in a lot of these categories and they have no way to get help for food.
Most of our seniors only get ten to thirty-five dollars in food stamps a month. It only covers edible food, not things like toilet paper, paper towels, medication, paper plates, or cleaning supplies.
Every month on our senior delivery route they get laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, trash bags, things to clean with, and little "prize bags." One month we gave pillows. You would not believe how many people have not had a new pillow in excess of fifteen years. We had one little group in a group home together who had no pillows. They were rolling up their clothes and sleeping on their clothes.
In this society, that's just not acceptable to me. It is right here in this wealthy, beautiful community that we live in. This stuff is happening right here. It has absolutely zero to do with the hurricane that came through a couple of years ago. This is just their life. We need to be aware that they're there.
Ed: Is there any other way other than volunteer or money that people can help?
Lynn: Those are the big things right now. Usually when people come in and volunteer or they take on a senior delivery route, you can't have their people. My delivery route people are very territorial about their people. "These are my people, you can't have them."
I love that component of it because that way those people are guaranteed they're going to see the same face every month. We're also able to check on people every month, like a wellness check. If they don't have any family and they're out there by themselves, that is so important that somebody is putting eyeballs on them.
You take it for granted when you have a family. I met a gentleman a few weeks ago. He's in his nineties, his wife died a few years ago, they never had kids, so his closest relatives are down in Florida. That's not normal to me, so I don't think about it, but it's out there.
Ed: Are there other ministries or nonprofits that do that to your knowledge?
Lynn: I'm sure there are other ministries that go out and deliver food or do open markets and things. I know Meals on Wheels takes meals to people's homes. We're doing groceries and supplies. I haven't looked. I'm too busy doing what I'm doing.
Ed: Unless you have a new restaurant you'd like to recommend, because it's been a few months since we last saw you. We always like to talk about food.
Lynn: Right now, it's not like fine dining, but Dairi-O has some really good hamburgers.
Ed: And that's near your place.
Lynn: It is. A little too close sometimes. They're very philanthropic too, by the way. Dairi-O's a good place and everybody seems to be very friendly when we go there.
Ed: There's a lot happening over there on Upward Road.
Lynn: There is. It's a lot of traffic and a lot of moving pieces over there. I think it changes weekly.
Ed: I think it's the next corridor for Hendersonville.
Lynn: I think it's already a corridor for Hendersonville. They just keep building on it.
Ed: June first through July thirty-first, storehouseonline.org. It's not "The Storehouse," it's storehouseonline.org. Give online, or look up the address and mail it, or come and see the purpley walls. Is there a goal?
Lynn: A hundred and twenty-five. That's what our goal is for this year. We didn't quite make it last year, but I think with all the new people moving in it shouldn't be a problem this year.
Ed: I think you can. As soon as we're done with Fourth of July, then we know what time it is.
Lynn: Christmas, Christmas, Christmas.
Ed: So we'll have you back in August or September.
Lynn: We'll be back talking about Christmas.
Ed: Awesome. Lynn Staggs with The Storehouse, thanks again for joining us. Thank you very much for all you do.
For everybody watching or listening, thank you. And as always, keep living local.