By Megan Parsons
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
For the first time, Midway University gave its Community Spirit Award to an organization outside Midway.
“It can be anyone in Woodford County. . . . That was the original concept,” President John P. Marsden said before the award presentation in the Anne Hart Raymond Center Thursday evening.
The award went to Spark Community Cafe, a pay-when-you-can cafe in Versailles that focuses on serving food-insecure people in Woodford County. People from all financial situations can dine at the cafe, co-founder Kyle Fannin said after accepting the award.
Those who can afford their meals have their tips go towards paying for the meals of food insecure people, Fannin said. If you cannot pay any amount for your meal, you can volunteer at the cafe. If you can only afford pay half, that’s fine.
Tristan Ferrell, the other co-founder, said the idea started in Fannin’s Community Interaction course at Woodford County High School in 2014. It started as a pay-when-you-can “pop-up” cafe, then Ferrell asked Fannin to “start this thing for real” and make it a full-time café, Ferrell recalled.
The university’s vice president of advancement, Tim Culver, said the award recipient is selected “by looking around at what’s going on and happening in our neighborhood and around the community, and identifying those we feel are making a difference.”
Spark Community Cafe has been open for six months. It has seen 15 percent of meals going to the food-insecure, and its goal is 20 percent, Fannin said. The cafe is able to stay open, he said, due to donations and their catering company.
He said the cafe strives to be as locally sourced as possible, serving food from eight to nine farms from five counties within 30 miles of the cafe, and “We are working on adding more.”
“Everybody deserves a great meal and to be waited on,” Fannin said. “To see the look on their faces when they eat that amazing food and we wait on them, they’ve probably never been waited on in their lives, and you’ll never know while you’re in there who the food-insecure is and that’s the way we like it.”
The award was presented during the university’s annual “Day for Midway” celebration, which is held “to increase the relationship between the town of Midway and Midway University,” Marsden said.
The award started after Marsden became president. One of his tasks was to develop a stronger relationship between the school and the town.
Previous Community Spirit Award winners have been prominent Woodford County volunteer Lillie Cox (2018), the Midway Woman’s Club (2017), Joyce Evans and the late Joel Evans (2016), and the Midway Christian Church (2015).
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
For the first time, Midway University gave its Community Spirit Award to an organization outside Midway.
“It can be anyone in Woodford County. . . . That was the original concept,” President John P. Marsden said before the award presentation in the Anne Hart Raymond Center Thursday evening.
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| From left: University President John Marsden and Spark Community Cafe co-founders Tristan Ferrell and Kyle Fannin |
Those who can afford their meals have their tips go towards paying for the meals of food insecure people, Fannin said. If you cannot pay any amount for your meal, you can volunteer at the cafe. If you can only afford pay half, that’s fine.
Tristan Ferrell, the other co-founder, said the idea started in Fannin’s Community Interaction course at Woodford County High School in 2014. It started as a pay-when-you-can “pop-up” cafe, then Ferrell asked Fannin to “start this thing for real” and make it a full-time café, Ferrell recalled.
The university’s vice president of advancement, Tim Culver, said the award recipient is selected “by looking around at what’s going on and happening in our neighborhood and around the community, and identifying those we feel are making a difference.”
Spark Community Cafe has been open for six months. It has seen 15 percent of meals going to the food-insecure, and its goal is 20 percent, Fannin said. The cafe is able to stay open, he said, due to donations and their catering company.
He said the cafe strives to be as locally sourced as possible, serving food from eight to nine farms from five counties within 30 miles of the cafe, and “We are working on adding more.”
“Everybody deserves a great meal and to be waited on,” Fannin said. “To see the look on their faces when they eat that amazing food and we wait on them, they’ve probably never been waited on in their lives, and you’ll never know while you’re in there who the food-insecure is and that’s the way we like it.”
The award was presented during the university’s annual “Day for Midway” celebration, which is held “to increase the relationship between the town of Midway and Midway University,” Marsden said.
The award started after Marsden became president. One of his tasks was to develop a stronger relationship between the school and the town.
Previous Community Spirit Award winners have been prominent Woodford County volunteer Lillie Cox (2018), the Midway Woman’s Club (2017), Joyce Evans and the late Joel Evans (2016), and the Midway Christian Church (2015).
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