Welcome to a brand new Good News York in our
new facility in the old spaghetti warehouse.
We are pretty much moved in. We're building sets
every day. The Good News York set is just about
ready, but not ready enough. So we decided to
utilize the famous train car. Who am I talking
to? Well, let me let you know. That is Mr. Ben
Taylor, the executive pastor at Vineyard Church,
going to be talking about a great program today
called Feed My Starving Children. I'm your host,
Mike Modice. Follow me on all socials at MikeBTV.
We're on all socials at Good News York and sponsored
by Ads on the Go. Get ads on the go .com. Ben,
welcome to the new Good News York. Thank you.
Great to be here. Yeah, it is. This is cool.
Matt got this all set up for us. And it's just
you and me in a train car. And I'm really excited
to talk about this because what you guys do is
amazing. But before we get into that, tell us
a little bit about yourself and how you got to
become the executive pastor at the Finger Church.
Yep, well, yeah, I'm a pastor at the Vineyard
Church. I've been doing this for two years now,
and before that I was a wastewater engineer.
for a consultant downtown. Natural progression.
Wastewater engineer. Pass. Absolutely. I went
to ESF and so I was a part of the Vineyard back
at ESF. And so I worked in engineering for a
bit and a lot of those skills transfer over to
what I do now at church. Just felt like that
was what my next move was. So, you know, I manage
all of the... facilities and finances and programs
and just kind of like help run the ship. If the
church was a football team, you'd be the general
manager. Is that fair to say? That sounds about
right. What was that like for you? What made
you go from, because as you said, those are two
different, you know, church can always be included
in your life in some capacity, but as a career
to go from a wastewater engineer to, how did
that come about? What made you do the change?
Yeah, well I've always been a part of the Vineyard
ever since I moved to Syracuse and had a good
relationship with the people at the Vineyard
and the lead pastor who's my boss now, he was
my pastor when we met at the Funkin' Waffles
on Marshall Street. Ye olde Funkin' Waffles.
Ye olde Funkin' Waffles. So we had church there
and so Chris was my friend and so we have had
a great relationship. I just got to a point where
there was an opening at the church and I had
been resistant to that for a while. Like my dad
was in the ministry, he was a pastor. So I was
like, no, absolutely not. Like that's not something
I'm gonna do. But I just believed that there
was a call from God in that and that he was saying,
all right, it's time. And so I made the jump,
made the leap. That's kind of scary. But, here
we are. Well, as they say, tell me one person
who wasn't afraid to take a leap. It's impossible,
right? You're doing it right if it's scary. Yeah,
that's the whole thing about it. It is the whole
thing about it. So, the Vineyard Church... You
guys do a lot of things. Obviously, we're going
to talk about the Feed My Starving Children program.
Tell us a little bit about what else is going
on at the church, some other things you guys
do on a daily basis. Yeah, so we have three buildings
in Central New York. We have our site out by
the State Fair. That's where we'll be hosting
our Feed My Starving Children event. We have
a site on the north side that we call Syracuse
site. That's on Butternut and McBride. Yeah.
It's right above the old save a lot there that
just closed. We have a site out in Auburn and
so we have three different churches and then
we have at Syracuse site We have an Espanyol
congregation that meets there as well. So we
have kind of four distinct congregations and
At each of those locations as well We have food
pantries that we have on us every single week
So in Auburn the food pantries on Thursdays and
then at Syracuse site and that's at State Fair
We have food pantries on Saturdays that are feeding
people every single week from in our local community.
That's amazing. Are you also, in addition to
doing all this and kind of being the GM, so to
speak, of the Vineyard Church, are you also,
and forgive me, I haven't brushed up on my religious
limbo, but are you giving sermons? Is that the
proper? I did. All right, God, are you, have
you been, in addition to all this, do you, as
well, do you give sermons? I do a couple times
a year. I'm not the primary preacher. You're
like the preacher, right? Yeah, yeah. So you're
kind of like the special guest. Yeah, when I
show up, when I show up, people are like, who
would like something new? Yeah. What? Oh, I love
that. It's Chris Hannes, our lead pastor. He
does the majority of preaching. He's really good
at it. Yeah. So I don't need to do that much.
Have you, have you been going to this church
since you were young? Nope, I grew up. in a different
denomination. I was a United Methodist growing
up and then there was no vineyards where I grew
up. And then when I moved to Syracuse, I started
coming. Do you feel that this church, does anything
stand out about this church that's a little different
from other churches? I believe there's misconceptions
out there that people who might not be as religious
or religious at all might think there's a uniform
thing about churches across. What kind of makes
you guys a little different and stand out a little
bit? Yeah. I mean, obviously. This is part of
it. Yeah. Thanks for asking. It's a good question.
One of our mantras is come as you are and be
loved, and we really live it. We really live
it out. We've got people that roll in every Sunday
from every walks of life, from ethnicities, cultures,
backgrounds, sobriety, socioeconomic status.
We've got the whole entire spectrum of people
and our staff. More so though, our leadership
team and our volunteers really live that out.
So it doesn't matter who you are when you come
in. You're gonna be loved, you're gonna be accepted,
you're gonna have some coffee, you'll have some
snacks. We have little apple fritters each week,
and we have bagels once a month. And then you'll
just be able to experience the love of God. And
then we'll have our service as well that lasts
for about an hour. But I say, come as you are
loved. And then our... our deep belief that outreach
and service to the community is core to the gospel
of Jesus, that we actually should be out in the
community serving people. Well, that is beautifully
said, Ben, because there are, I'm sure, a lot
of denominations that may preach that as part
of their everyday workings of their church, but
they don't do it, especially in the capacity
that you guys do it, and that's why you're here
today. proving that that is exactly what you
do, let's talk about the Feed My Starving Children
program. How did this start? When did this start?
And tell us what you guys do. Yeah, yeah. And
to be clear, a lot of churches in Syracuse are
doing a lot of great things. Lots of good work
out there. Of course. I think we've been specifically
blessed with a facility that can accommodate
some of these things. So with Feed My Starving
Children, This is an annual event that we do
where we transform three rooms of our large kind
of warehouse building, and these three rooms
become an FDA -approved packing facility for
meals that are little bags that are called Manapak,
that is rice, veggies, soy, and vitamins. this
little meal provides the nutrition for kids,
specifically kids, or specifically for kids that
are growing, for them to be able to eat and survive
across the world. So that's like, so our little
piece of that is we pack these little meals.
And then as we get bigger, those meals get...
transported onto trucks and then they get shipped
across the world to feed hungry kids everywhere.
Like you name a country and you name a continent
that you think kids would need this food. This
food gets to them wait from Syracuse and obviously
other locations as well But like right so feed
my starving children organization. They bring
in the tractor trailers They park them by our
building and then we have a you have over 2 ,000
volunteers coming up in March and we unload the
trucks We unload the ingredients we pack the
ingredients and then we pack them back up into
boxes wrap them up They go back onto the truck
and they get shipped out and this is this going
out also across the country at the other Vineyard
churches as well This is not like a universal
vineyard program for all the folk arts in the
country. There's probably a couple others that
are doing it. But this is something that we started.
This will be our 16th year. So we've been doing
this since 2009. Our meals have reached we've
we've packed almost six million meals as a just
a vineyard Syracuse and That's fed, you know
15 ,000 almost 16 ,000 kids the numbers here
are you've got some numbers here of I mean, we're
talking about 375 million total. So this is like
the feed my starving children organization does
the distribution that provides the food. Yeah,
it's crazy. It's amazing. They've done, I think,
five billion meals that they have distributed
across the world for the last 30 years. And you
said, how long have you guys been doing this?
We've been doing this since 2009. Be My Starving
Children has been in existence since 1982. Is
this something that you reached out to them or
they came to you? How did the marriage come together?
The founding pastors of our church, John and
Gwen Elmer, they were looking for an organization
that they could do some global outreach with.
At that point, we had had our food pantries,
so we were feeding people locally, but they wanted,
they were thinking, what can we do that's more
global? And so they did a bunch of research on
organizations. They were looking for a super
trustworthy organization. They wanted a high
success rate to actually get food to people that
need it. And so Gwen came across Feed My Starving
Children and the super unique, because it's not
just like, oh, let's go raise $120 ,000 for an
organization and just write them a check. Sure.
That's not what this is. This is, all right,
we pay them. And then they actually bring the
stuff to us, engage the whole entire community.
And we'll be engaging businesses and all of our
church people. And then we actually pack the
food. So it's like, literally, you are packing
and seeing that food that is going to go somewhere
else in the world to feed again. Ben, you're
so right. And it's kind of an apples and oranges
comparison. But I always say like, You know,
my daughter and I worked together on building
this entertainment stand around, I don't know,
last Christmas or something. And when it got
done, still to this day, I'm like, we did that,
as opposed to buying something that's already
put together. And obviously, again, apples and
oranges. But I understand what you mean, the
importance of. Actually doing it that's got to
be a little bit extra reward inside. I would
absolutely Yeah, and it's because of because
of that feeling because it's been such a rewarding
thing and people love doing it the Getting volunteers
has actually been the easiest thing throughout
the years. And so we have Multiple schools that
will come and serve during the day of school
kids that can because you can pack the meal You
know, it doesn't matter. You have to be I think
eight years old or something. So they come and
pack the meals and then We have businesses, Wegmans,
YMCA, M &T, like they come and they bring groups
of people and then they pack the meals. And so
this is not just like a church thing that church
people have to do. It's something that, hey.
People that aren't even come out of the church,
well, yeah, let's go. Let's pack some food. That's
what it's about. Now, I would assume, is it fair
to say that, to be fair, I should mention March
18th through the 21st is the serious vineyards
connects, feed my starving children. That is
what we're here to talk about. Is the third to
say this is kind of your Super Bowl as the GM?
Is this kind of a year -round planning deal,
or is it a plug -and -go at this point? We have
three Super Bowls. Christmas, Easter, and Feed
My Star and Children. Right, Christmas, Easter,
obviously. I should have known that for our services.
So yeah, but this is, for sure, our largest event
where we have the most people in the building
for that four -day period, and it's the thing
that we have that's the most engaging for other...
people and other businesses as well. So tell
us, how can people get involved? I know you said
it's easy to get volunteers, but I'm sure you're
always looking for extra volunteers. Tell us
how people can get involved and give us kind
of like a day in the life, that day, what happens.
I mean, you did a little bit, but. Yeah, so let's
talk about the money first. So, you know, we're
always receiving donations for this. So. One
of the best things about feeding my starving
children as well is it takes $106 to feed a meal
a day for a kid for a whole entire year. Really?
So when was the last time that you went to Costco
or Wegmans and spent less than $106? It's impossible.
It's genuinely impossible right now. Right, so
we can't even feed ourselves for $106 for a week
or two. But because of the scale and the scope
of this organization they can feed a kid for
a whole entire year for 106 dollars It's incredible.
I mean it's amazing. Yeah, so in order for us
to feed 1 ,200 kids a meal a day a year, which
is what our goal is for this year. We're raising
$129 ,000. And so we're encouraging if businesses
would like to come and pack and have a great
team bonding event that they consider that, hey,
they can feed a kid for $106 or the volunteers
will each pack about $80 worth of food. for each
person that's packing, so they can bring that
along, and they can be a sponsor. We have different
sponsorship levels that we can talk about. Yeah,
we see it. There's the child sponsor, which is
the 106. Yeah, tell us a little bit about the
family sponsor, the classrooms. Go through all
those packages. Yeah, you can feed a child for
$160 a year, but a classroom, like a whole entire
classroom of kids. $2 ,250. Which we know $2
,000 is not, you know, it's not cheap. But when
you put it in the perspective of feeding a classroom
of 20 children for an entire year. A whole entire
year. Yep. Yep. It says a lot. Yep. And then,
you know, obviously you can, we can go out from
there and do the math, but $25 ,000 for a village
sponsor and like that's, that's feeding a whole
entire village of kids. $25 ,000. So it's incredible.
So we're inviting people to partner with us,
if you would like to be a business sponsor. This
runs through a separate 501c3 that we have called
Vineyard Connects. So if your business has rules
around donating to religious organizations, we
have a separate organization that you can donate
to that runs the program. And yeah, it's for
everybody. You know, you don't have to be a Christian
to pack. Like this is something that's open to
everybody. It's very nice. So we have that. And
then on March 9th. The packing slots will be
open to anybody if you want to come and pack.
And so you can get that link at our website,
VineyardMY .org. We'll put it right here on the
screen. And we'll have that right on the main
homepage. And so you'll be able to click on that
and you'll be able to access the slots. So we
have slots from Wednesday the 18th all the way
to Saturday the 21st. And we've got some, some
evening, some like later slots for people that
are, you know, maybe work till five, five or
six. We've got some seven 30 to nine 30 slots
later in the day. Um, we've got some morning
slots afternoon. Any different time of day. So
there's really so many ways you can help. I mean,
you could just donate. You could just pack. You
could donate and pack. So there's really no excuse
for us to... We're always talking about, I wish
we could change the world. I wish we could make
the world a better place. That is literally what
you guys are doing. And it's absolutely amazing.
Working with organizations like Feed My Starving
Children has given me a lot of perspective on...
global events and like whenever you know, we
see all the all the bad stuff happening in the
world and Being able to work with an organization
like you my servant children says, okay I can't
I can't control anything in the world really
I can control like my own little thing that little
bit and so what can I do I can be generous with
my time and with my money and that allows me
to to feel like I can make a little bit of an
impact in the world and feed a kid in Ukraine
or feed a kid in Guyana or Zambia or on the African
continent, you know, just like I can't do that
on my own from Syracuse, but I can in partnership
with these organizations. So. Yeah, generosity
man. That does it does something in your soul.
You know, I would say you don't have to advertise
generosity But these days sometimes I feel like
you do and you're riving it man And then by the
way, that's the right mantra is we all we all
talk about You know can only control the things
we can control and if you want to help out in
the long run It starts by doing small steps here
And I would say you guys are actually taking
large steps here locally and regionally regionally
I just think it's absolutely wonderful what you
do. Is there anything? else you want to talk
about outside of this or more about this before
we go? Yeah, I encourage people, if you haven't
engaged with a global type organization and if
that's something you haven't been familiar with
in your life, I just encourage you to try it
out. Try out what it would feel like to give
or to serve in a way that helps people that are
really far away from you. And it's an interesting
thing that happens with people. There's a different
muscle, I think, in our bodies. We often like
to consume. We often like to receive. That's
what our whole American consumerism is built
around. It's just around consuming and receiving.
Something happens in us and our hearts and our
minds when we give back and... it's akin to just
like having really good feelings like it's continuing
to being joyful and to even receiving. So like
it's something I encourage people to get involved
in. Are you able to kind of see the results of
the work? Like by any chance are you in connection
with any of the kids over there through the church
or through the national organization? Yeah, so
in addition to, we receive reports every single
year of where our specific food goes. Like the
food that I touched two years ago, we know exactly
what you were just talking about. That's super
cool. And then in addition, we've done a couple
different trips throughout the years and we actually
have one coming up in May. So we have different
mission trips that we have tried to strategically
align with Feed My Starving Children so that
we can send some people down to the areas that
are receiving the food and then go there and
actually cook the food and hand out the food
to the kids. Wow. So we did that, I don't know,
three or four years ago to Guatemala. where some
people from the church went down and were able
to hand out food and feed kids in Guatemala.
And then we're gonna be doing that again in May,
where we're gonna send down, I don't know, 15,
20 people to the Dominican Republic with an area
that we know has a partnership with Feed My Servant
Children. So some of our people can go down there
and experience the food getting to these kids.
That's gotta be the best. Yeah, I haven't done
it myself, but I will one day. It's just incredible.
I just like to be able to pack it in Syracuse.
Yeah, it's not the same exact food that's getting
to the Dominican, but it's the same exact thing
that we packed and it gets down there and then
to actually distribute that to the kids. That's
pretty incredible. That's what it's all about.
Ben Taylor, executive pastor at Vineyard Church,
Feed My Starving Children, the Syracuse Mobile
Pack, March 18th through the 21st. Any other
plugs you want to give us, your social media
handles, events, anything, go ahead. You can
track with us online at vineyardny .org. If you
want to learn more about the food pantries, you
can go to vineyardny .org backslash pantry. There's
a link right on the top of our menu bar there.
So that's more about, so if you need food or
if you'd like to volunteer locally, week in and
week out. We have that available at the food
pantry for volunteering and forgiving, of course.
And if you need to receive food, we are available
for you. And then our social media is our Vineyard
NY State Fair for our larger location. And that's
where we will be posting all of our updates about
Feed My Starving Children. You know, Ben, in
a time where people are arguing on social media
back and forth about the state of the world and
not doing anything about it, you, my friend,
are one of the... the few that are really out
there changing the world, and I'm really glad
you came on the show, and thank you for your
time, man. It's an honor to have interviewed
you. Ben Taylor, Executive Pastor again at Vineyard
Church, Feed My Starving Children Syracuse Mobile
Pack, March 18th through the 21st, 2026 at...
Vineyard NY State Fair or on some social media
at Vineyard NY That's it for Good News York coming
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