Ken Hall first connected with Second Helpings in 2012 when his employer at the time, First Indiana Bank, was in conversation with the organization to service their banking needs.
Ken’s initial conversation with Second Helpings led to the creation of a financial education program for Culinary Job Training classes, still a regular piece of this program.
That professional relationship inspired Ken to get further involved, attending events like Tonic Ball, and first volunteered in the Hunger Relief kitchen in 2014.
Ken and Joanna at Tonic Ball in 2018
“I started in the dish room, and that’s still my favorite volunteer role,” says Ken.
“Not too long after I started volunteering in the dish room, a lovely young lady named Joanna Stair was assigned to join me. We worked together to get the dishes out into the 3-sink cleaner…then one day I got brave and asked her to go to Tonic Ball with me.”
Three years later, Ken and Joanna were married.
Since that fateful day in the dish room, the couple has continued to stay involved at Second Helpings and across the community.
They have volunteered a combined 1,100 hours over the last nine years. Ken also serves on the Advisory Council.
“We share a passion for volunteering and we both love our city,” Ken shares. “We also know that you can either sit around and complain if you don’t like something, or you can roll up your sleeves and help fix it.”
Throughout their life together, Second Helpings has remained a shared passion.
They brought their pastor at St. John the Evangelist downtown in to Second Helpings for a tour, and now the church’s Garden Door Ministry is a Second Helpings partner agency!
When the couple prepared their estate plans, they reflected on those shared values. Including a planned gift to Second Helpings “was a really easy decision,” smiles Ken.
“Second Helpings is high on our priority list. Furthermore, I work in the financial arena, so we’re understand the need to plan accordingly – because tomorrow is never promised. If something happened to me, I want Second Helpings to be supported, and I want to give more through that plan.”
Second Helpings is grateful for Ken and Joanna’s ongoing support to feed Indy, and their Legacy Society gift helps ensure that the organization can achieve its goals for current and future generations of Hoosiers.
If you would like to learn more about what making a planned gift means or how to join the Legacy Society visit our website, or reach out to Katie Prine, Senior Director of Philanthropy. Or, if you are like Ken and Joanna and have already made a gift in your estate plans, please let Katie know so we can say thank you.