By Sara Cunningham
Stan Curtis was on his way to a meeting this morning when a man stopped him on the street and asked for a meal.
“So I took him into the Hyatt,” Curtis said.
The act was not unusual for Curtis. Finding a way to feed those without food has been his passion for two decades.
The Louisville resident founded Kentucky Harvest in 1987. It grew into the international food-sharing program U.S.A. Harvest.
More than 200 people, including actress and singer Hilary Duff and other celebrities, celebrated his vision today over lunch at St. Vincent DePaul’s Open Hand Kitchen on Jackson Street.
“Good things happen because good people stand up and make them happen,” Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said.
U.S.A. Harvest, in conjunction with Kentucky Harvest, has been able to provide more than 13 billion pounds of food to more than 5,400 agencies in more than 130 cities in the United States and in other countries, according to its Web site.
It collects food and distributes it to shelters, food banks and other charities that feed people.
Duff joined the cause after she and Curtis met several years ago while they were working to distribute food in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, he said. And before a performance at the Louisville Palace last night, she met with 186 fans who had collected 1,000 cans of food for U.S.A. Harvest — enough to provide 500,000 meals, organizers said.
“I touched her leg, I touched her leg,” squealed one of them, Mackenzie Stovall, 10, of Louisville, to no one in particular after meeting Duff.
Mackenzie spent more than three weeks collecting the cans but said it was worth it to get a chance to be near Duff. “It was awesome,” she said, holding her hand up for a reporter to see. “I may not wash it at least for a couple of days.”
For others, meeting Duff was an opportunity to do more than just touch a celebrity.
Earlier in the day, Remington Maxwell, a teenager from Jeffersonville, Ind., managed to slip Duff a CD from Remington’s band, the Hightops. By the time she met Duff later at the Palace, the singer remembered the band and had already listened to the music. “She said she liked it,” Remington said. “Hopefully she’ll give it to people who’ll make us rich.”
Duff said the CD was “cute.” She laughed politely and said “That’s funny” when asked if she would pass it on to record producers.
Earlier, at the lunch, Curtis said of Duff that “any father in the world would be proud to have her as a daughter.”
Duff, near tears, called the other people in the room — most of them program volunteers or donors — “inspirations.”
“I’m overwhelmed to be in a room of so many accomplished adults,” she said, adding that she got involved with program because her mother raised her to “stand for something.”
At the luncheon, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, told the crowd that Louisville has many food-oriented things to be proud of, including the hot brown, but “there’s nothing that can give this community more pride than to say we originated the Harvest concept.”
For his part, Curtis said very little about what he had done and instead told stories about others in the group who had helped make his plan a success. He said he hopes to go out of business every day because that would mean there was no longer a need for what he does. Until that happens, he’ll just keep “food-raising,” he said.
“We’re doing the right thing,” he said. “Become more determined, become more dedicated. Let’s be stronger together.”
Reporter Jason Riley contributed to this story.
Reporter Sara Cunningham can be reached at (502) 582-4335, and the reporters do not belong to Hilary Duff Encyclopedia.
Courtesy:
courier-journal.com
