Keli Watkins has devoted her entire life to the service of others.
“Every single job I’ve ever had since I started working has been in community service,” she shared.
She served in the U.S. Army, worked as a youth counselor, supported families at risk of losing their SNAP benefits, helped those coming out of incarceration to reenter society, and managed homes for adults with disabilities.
“I’m a sixties baby. When I was very, very young, I remember being affected by all the injustice that was going on in the world,” Keli said. Her first dream was to become a judge.
“I was going to fix everything!” she laughed. “I’ve always felt a sense of wanting to help someone who needed help. I definitely see it as a gift.”
Keli grew up in Franklin Township and seized the opportunity to come back to her hometown when she saw that Franklin Food Bank was hiring. Today, she serves as Franklin Food Bank’s Program Director, managing their market, working with volunteers, and forming strategic partnerships with other local agencies to better serve community members in need.
Franklin Food Bank is a CFBNJ community partner that operates as a hybrid food bank/food pantry. In addition to serving local families with upwards of 1,700 visits per month to its choice-style market – a bright, cheerful, and bustling place set up to look like a large neighborhood bodega – it also provides food to dozens of other organizations (soup kitchens and food pantries) in the surrounding area. Like CFBNJ, Franklin Food Bank will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025!
Keli remembers visiting Franklin Food Bank herself when she needed it more than thirty years ago. When she first got out of the military, she was offered unemployment, but it took some time for the paperwork to be processed. She was in between checks with a baby at home and turned to Franklin Food Bank for support.
Now, she describes making a difference in her own backyard as “heartfelt deep within the soul.” Her favorite part of the day-to-day work is interacting with visitors to the market.
“I want to thank you for welcoming me,” a neighbor said to Keli one morning. She was touched.
“We never realize how much a greeting, a handshake, or a smile affects someone. I often tell the volunteers: you never know what a neighbor’s life was like before they came into the market and what they have to deal with when they go back home. Let’s make this at least one place where they feel loved, respected, honored, and cared for.”
She also connects deeply with the wrap-around services that Franklin Food Bank has for a holistic approach to food insecurity. The organization currently provides nutrition education classes and is working towards offering courses on financial literacy, English as a second language, and parenting, too.
Keli believes in an approach that nourishes the whole person and lifts them up towards a better future.
“If my life is behind the eight ball, I can only see where my sight line is,” she said. “It’s going to take somebody else to just put their hand right up under my chin and say ‘hey – look. What about this shot?’ So, my vision for Franklin Food Bank – and I know that we all share their vision – is for us to work with our neighbors, to encourage our neighbors, to love and embrace our neighbors, and make sure they catch the glimpse of the open pocket.
