I'm Nora McInerney, and this is thanks for asking, a call-in show about what matters to you.

And today we are talking to a woman named Kathy Barker, who I met at a fundraising event.

I was in Iowa, Davenport, Iowa, and it was a fundraising event for the River Bend Food Bank.

I was a speaker, and so was Kathy.

Now, River Bend Food Bank is an organization that feeds

thousands of people in 23 counties in eastern Iowa and western Illinois. This is an organization

that Kathy supports with the bounty of her farm. She was there to share her story, how she became the kind of farmer who truly

gives away the farm, which is what she does. Barker Farms is a nonprofit that gives away what

it grows. This is a farm that exists for the purest reason to feed anyone who needs good,

nutritious food. And the reason it exists is because Kathy

was once a person in need of that help. Back when she was starting over on her own, after leaving

an abusive marriage and working seven days a week at three jobs to support herself and her six children.

So Kathy, I want you to tell me the story, put me in the grocery store.

Okay. I remember it was one late night at the grocery store, standing in the produce section, holding a small container of raspberries.

And my kids loved fresh raspberries, but they were too expensive.

So I stood there that night, just letting the full weight of my situation just wash over me.

I had just worked 16 hours.

I had three different jobs that I was juggling.

And even though I had just worked 16 hours and juggled running a household, I still couldn't afford the raspberries for my kids.

And so I remember standing there, just feeling so defeated and so humiliated.

I had never really experienced that kind of low moment before. And I just started crying when I put

those raspberries back on the shelf and feeling very lost. Like, what am I going to do? How am I

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