Bowling Green woman feeds tornado victims with porch pantry

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – One Bowling Green woman has gone out of her way to help her neighbors since the tornado.

Kaitlyn Wilkins and her family live one street away from Bowling Green’s tornado damage in Creekwood.

The day after the December 2021 tornadoes, Kaitlyn and her husband hosted a cookout in their backyard. Ever since her Facebook invite to the community gained over 300 shares, her home has been recognized as a haven to people in need.

“[From] Facebook, 40 something people showed up just to help volunteer, run food in wagons to both streets,” said Kaitlyn. “Then, eventually some food trucks jumped in, and now we are continuing it with the porch pantry.”

Her porch pantry – cans of food stacked on her front porch –  tornado victims and others can grab food. Kaitlyn and her husband, churches and good Samaritans who drive by all donate to the porch pantry.”

“My [front door] camera goes off about 30 times a day,” Kaitlyn said. “Every once awhile people will talk to the camera and say thank you.”

She recalled that, “There was actually a guy that walked u one time and you could tell he was homeless and he made me cry because I just I was watching the camera … and he was like ‘Thank you Jesus’. He was so sweet.”

Kaitlyn says her community has come a long way since the days when 800 people showed up to her cookouts or the days when she and others in the community made 300 food deliveries each day across Bowling Green.

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress going forward. You start to see less and less people, but there is still a need,” she said bittersweetly.

Kaitlyn encourages people to donate to local churches across Bowling Green.