Brad Ussery is making some changes in how he serves those in need of food and other supplies as he continues the work he and his late wife, Lisa, and hundreds of volunteers have undertaken over the past decade.
The director of the Community Kitchen at 114 E. Bland St. said that the nonprofit plans to switch to reusable food containers instead of styrofoam within a couple of months that will allow volunteers to deliver meals to areas where people in need tend to congregate.
“When we do that we’ll be able to transfer them in heated bags and have volunteers out north near the (Roswell) Mall and out west where there is a lot of population, and we’ll be able to have a meeting place to hand them out for about 30 minutes because a lot of people can’t get down to where we are at,” Ussery said.
The need for food assistance in the city remains as great as ever, Ussery said. A spike in hunger occurred after the COVID-19 stimulus funds ended, he said. National news media have reported that inflation, supply chain disruptions and the effect of the Russian-Ukrainian war on oil prices have also caused increases in the prices for groceries, gasoline and diesel and other goods and services, which can lead to food insecurity.
The local Community Kitchen distributes about 140 to 150 full lunches each weekday as well as about 50 sack lunches a day on Saturdays and Sundays to anyone who shows up at their building, no questions asked. During the height of COVID-19 and its gathering restrictions, the group decided that volunteers would hand out meals for people to eat elsewhere. That continues now, Ussery said, because it simplifies operations and he thinks it provides more safety for volunteers. The group did set up some picnic tables with umbrellas behind its building for people to eat there if they want.
Ussery’s efforts are center stage again after he and his wife, who passed away in February, have been named the 2022 Citizens of the Year by the Roswell Association of Realtors, only the most recent awards the two have received. A luncheon in their honor was held by the realtors group on Tuesday.
“I was just stunned and humbled,” said Ussery. “Lisa deserved it. I don’t really do that much, but she did a lot very quietly.”
In fact, Ussery works almost every day with Community Kitchen, which has distributed more than 1.2 million meals in the past 10 years. But Ussery gives his wife the greater credit.
In honor of Lisa and using some of the donations made in tribute to her, the Community Kitchen has started to distribute Lisa’s Love Bags as a way to continue her work. They are backpacks with drawstrings that contain soap, deodorant, toothpaste, socks, bottled water, canned food, fruit snacks, cookies and some Christian materials.
“It will keep people going for a couple of days, all the stuff we have in there,” Ussery said. “Plus they have a backpack they can use.”
People wanting to help can go to the backdoor of the Community Kitchen building during its operating hours, usually 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, to pick up the bags to give to those in need.
Ussery said that he has heard that the care bags have made their way to many other cities and states.
“People have taken them all over Texas — Austin, Lovekin, Dallas-Fort Worth area — and we have a family in Golden, Colo., that is distributing them all over southern Colorado and the Denver, Colo., area,” he said. “People take a road trip and they see somebody — it doesn’t have to be somebody here.”
Brad and Lisa Ussery grew up in Roswell, with Brad graduating from Goddard High School and Lisa from Roswell High School. Brad managed and co-owned restaurants and Lisa was an elementary school teacher and worked with a family-run oil and gas business.
They met in 2003 and married in 2005. In 2009, they moved to the Albuquerque area to run the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Program. Lisa had long been involved in Christian volunteer and charitable efforts, and Brad drew from his experience in management and the personal travails of overcoming an alcohol addiction.
They returned to Roswell in 2011, and Brad was approached soon after by Matt Hinkle, a Community Kitchen board member, about helping out the organization, which had been started in 1982 and was then located in the basement of St. Peter’s Church.
Ussery previously has said that he thought maybe he’d do the job for three months. But he has been at the helm ever since and is one of the two paid staff members. He said that, at age 63, he plans to stay for a least a few more years.
During his tenure, he has seen the organization become more financially stable and able to move into its own building in 2018, with Lisa helping in fundraising, decorating and design.
Ussery said he remains dedicated to the work out of duty and ability. “Somebody has to do it,” he said, “and, as it turns out, that is my sweet spot.”
The current board president for the Roswell Association of Realtors, Todd Taylor, nominated the Usserys for the Citizens of the Year award. Each year the association honors someone for their community contributions, whether that involves community service, government service, business leadership or philanthropy.
Taylor said that one reason he chose the Usserys is that food security is a major concern of his. He is involved in agribusiness as well as real estate and is a board member for the New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association, which runs the Double Up Food Bucks grant-funded program that allows people to double the amount of their federal assistance benefits when purchasing food at participating farmers markets in the state.
Data about hunger varies depending on the organization, but Feeding America indicated that about 298,030 people in New Mexico, or about 14.2% of the population, reported food insecurity in 2019 before the COVID pandemic. Food insecurity is a term developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that refers to lack of access to nutritious food or lack of an adequate amount of food to lead a healthful, active life. For children in New Mexico, 22% were considered food insecure in 2019.
“They are just remarkable for feeding the people in the Roswell area,” Taylor said. “It takes dedication. It takes hard work and they are doing what I consider to be God’s work.”
