As the rising cost of groceries contributes to food insecurity across Kentucky, FoodChain, a north Lexington nonprofit, is looking to plug the hunger gap with a new market concept.
“Times are hard right now for everybody,” said Michele Combs, a retiree who volunteers with FoodChain. “For those who are working, and especially for those who are not working, it's just hard. And so, if I can help put a meal together to give somebody, hip hip hooray.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found much of north Lexington is a food desert. FoodChain expanded in May to help meet the need there, opening its own neighborhood grocery store. It offers fresh produce, prepared meals and even free popcorn and slushies for children.
Leandra Forman, FoodChain’s co-executive director, said the store is meant to accommodate low-income households with limited access to supermarkets, as well as become a community space.
“This building used to be a bread factory,” she said. “It was a place of employment for a lot of folks in the neighborhood, and when it shut down, it kind of created that depression, and so we really saw an opportunity that people could come back into this building, get that workforce again.”
In operation since 2011, FoodChain helps those in need access locally-sourced groceries and meals. Alongside donations, the nonprofit operates its own kitchen and indoor produce farm.
“We're probably receiving and distributing anywhere from seven-to-20,000 pounds of food every week,” Forman said.
According to Feeding America, a national hunger relief organization, 53% of 18- to 44-year-olds in the Bluegrass go at least one day a week without eating. The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy reports food prices have risen more than 27% in the past five years.
Twice a week, a small team of workers bag up and distribute hundreds of hot meals to people on the north side of the city. Over the summer, they hand out popsicles to beat the heat.
Forman said the demand for food gets even higher during the hotter months, when school is out.
“In the school year, we're doing about 150 to 200 meals and snacks and things every day,” she said. “In the summer, we're increasing that to, at our height, we're doing between 500 and 600 of those a day.”
Forman said Fayette County’s housing shortage also plays a part. Firm EHI Consultants reports Lexington is 22,000 housing units short.
“We are just seeing that the number of unhoused people, the number of people who have lost access to recovery centers and facilities, and the ability to stay on their recovery journey has really increased,” Forman said.
Along with the essentials, FoodChain’s grocery store also sells produce from its indoor farm. It’s in the back of the building, with rows of crops and fish tanks. Staff use a process called aquaponics, recycling fish waste to fertilize crops.
Farm director Ethan Buland says the process is more sustainable than traditional, soil-based farming.
“We're growing our plants in these beds full of water, but this water is constantly recirculating from the fish tanks, through filtration, into our grow beds and then right back to our fish tanks,” he said.
Federal cuts, and last year’s government shutdown, have proved challenging for FoodChain. Last year, the federal government canceled more than $1 billion in grants that would have helped food banks and schools buy produce. In Kentucky,
The cuts also hit as more than 4 million people across the U.S. have lost SNAP benefits from July 2025 through March. In Kentucky, more than 40,000 Kentuckians have lost the benefits, commonly called food stamps, since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including more than 11,000 children.
SNAP benefits were also paused last fall amid a federal government shutdown.
Forman said donors have helped FoodChain bridge the gap.
“During the SNAP shutdown, people, our community insanely rallied around making sure that FoodChain had the funding to support families through the SNAP shutdown in November and making sure everyone was able to get a Thanksgiving box.”
Those challenges haven’t stopped the team from looking to the future. FoodChain is educating high school interns and volunteers on how to handle and farm their own produce so they can bring that knowledge back to their own community.
FoodChain is a financial supporter of WEKU.
