Athens, WV (WOAY) – A food pantry in Athens is one of 10 nonprofits across the country selected for Kubota’s Hometown Proud grant, a $50,000 award the group is putting toward growing its own food.
Helpful Harvest serves around 500 families each week, according to Lisa Davis, founding director of Helpful Harvest Farm & Outreach Center. Davis said that until recently, every bit of that food was either purchased or donated.
“We’re in a food desert in this area, and we serve everybody from college students to elderly, all the way from newborn to 99,” Davis said.
That changed when Helpful Harvest started growing food of its own.
“With the area we’re in, it’s a long way to the grocery store for people. So we decided to start farming and putting fresh vegetables, which is what people have most trouble acquiring,” Davis said.
The pantry acquired its farmland in July 2025. Its first season yielded an acre and a half of corn, an acre of potatoes and 1,000 heads of cabbage, all of which went to local families. The pantry brought in that harvest without owning a tractor.
“We had help from our local friends that have tractors and they helped us plow and do everything that needed done so that we could get the crops growing and everything did really well,” Davis said.
Kubota said more than 1,100 applications came in for this year’s Hometown Proud grant. The award to Helpful Harvest includes $25,000 in cash and a $25,000 equipment voucher.
“So I told everybody, the Lord doesn’t send you 25 and a half acres of farmland and no tractor. And it showed up,” Davis said.
Davis said the full grant went toward the tractor, and donors covered the remaining cost.
“We can plow our own fields and we can plant our own corn now,” she said.
Helpful Harvest is also building a new facility, and the Hugh I. Shott Jr. Foundation is matching half the cost. Davis said the group has big plans for future expansion.
“We’ve got a lot left to do, so we’re just excited to try to get everything done,” she said.
Kubota said the Hometown Proud program, now in its sixth year, has awarded more than $2.9 million in funding and equipment nationwide.
