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Food bank founder gets Points of Light award

By Molly Moorhead, Times Staff Writer
In print: Saturday, July 19, 2008

Glenn Kelm helped start the Volunteer Way food bank. The retired teacher received the Points of Light award this week.
	[The Volunteer Way Food Bank]

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NEW PORT RICHEY — When Glenn Kelm first helped start a food cupboard out of a church on Palmetto Road in 1992, there was never enough food.

After a few years of amassing donations, there was too much food for the small space and an ever-growing need. So Kelm helped create a food warehouse that now serves 70 nonprofit groups and 1,500 needy families a month throughout Pasco County and central Florida.

Sixteen years later, Kelm, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher, is still at it. He works three days a week at the Volunteer Way Food Bank, doing mostly bookkeeping and clerical work. That's a change from the old days, when he used to pick up donations from grocery stores and then help box everything up for distribution.

For his service, Gov. Charlie Crist this week honored Kelm with a Points of Light award, a program that "recognizes those Florida residents and organizations that demonstrate exemplary volunteer service to their community."

Kelm, who is on vacation in Tennessee, learned of the award only Friday when his wife broke the news after a reporter called. He reacted quietly, saying he was "pleased" and "honored" to be recognized.

But that's just a reflection of his personality: calm, steady and hard-working.

"He's a very mild-mannered person, but he has a sense of right and wrong," said Lester Cypher, CEO of the Volunteer Way.

He and Kelm, longtime friends, worked together to start the Shepherd's Cupboard food bank at the Calvary Temple Church of God, and later formed the Volunteer Way. Cypher is a past Points of Light recipient.

He praised not only his friend's work but also his motivation.

"He believes that it's a mandate from the Bible to feed the hungry people and to serve them," Cypher said. "That's his motivation."

Kelm will receive a certificate and congratulatory letter from Crist.

"I feel that I can do and I should do whatever I'm capable of doing," he said. "Right now I feel good and I can help, so I want to do it."

Molly Moorhead can be reached at moorhead@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6245.