WVVA Hometown Hero: Davis grows Helpful Harvest from foodbank into outreach

SPEEDWAY, W.Va. (WVVA) - Lisa Davis was born and raised in Mercer County, growing up where her father spent his childhood in the community of Speedway.

Her father’s childhood hardships are the foundation for Davis’s compassion, and it prompted her to volunteer in her spare time as she and her husband raised ten daughters.

“My dad grew up in this community and he was one of 10 siblings, and they went without food and clothing and necessities, and that probably is the core, I don’t want to see anybody without,” Davis said.

Davis says after her twins were born; she finished a degree in Biology at Concord University in 2017, and she was on-track to go to the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, donating time to the Helpful Harvest when she could.

Then the pandemic hit.

The Helpful Harvest Outreach started as a community food pantry in the Speedway community, but when COVID closures started, the growing need triggered an expansion in the distribution days. Davis applied for and received American Rescue Plan funding and more, each grant helping meet someone’s need in her community.

“Somehow, people keep finding us who need things and I have the resources, I don’t know, God-given resources to find stuff that people need,” said Davis with a smile and a shrug.

Helpful Harvest is helping between 250 and 600 families fight food insecurity every week, as well as locating other good for people in need like gently used furniture, baby supplies, and even pet food.

In the nomination letter, written by Davis’s eldest daughter, the story of an elderly woman who’d had an extended hospital visit was shared. She had returned home to find the door to her home had been left open, chickens moved in, and the utilities had been shut off.

Davis, a volunteer with Helpful Harvest intervened.

“...The need keeps finding me, so I get calls, like the lady that needed help she was 85, and she didn’t have any heat, and or water, and she didn’t have any help and so we went to help her,” said Davis.

The outreach program received their non-profit status in May 2021 and their growth continues, as Davis shares plans to add a baby pantry and the possibility of a satellite location for a food pantry in Bluewell.

“Somehow, people keep finding us who need things and I have the resources, God-given resources to find stuff that people need,” Davis said, adding that it’s her faith, volunteers, and family that makes her mission work.

“My children help out. So, when you ask me how I find time to do it, they help. They, our children from ages 5 all the way to 27, all pitch in out here. My husband works a lot but when he’s off he helps.” said Davis, beaming with pride.

“Well, I don’t feel like a hero,” Davis said with a chuckle, but it’s her humility and work to help her community that makes Lisa Davis a WVVA Hometown Hero.

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