Memories: A generous angel
Published: November 2, 2005
Betty Gibbons Baker started the “In As Much” food kitchen in honor of her late husband. Now, after Betty’s death on Saturday, she leaves her own legacy behind that will remind people of her dedication to feeding the hungry.
Betty, 75, died Saturday from congestive heart failure and diabetes, said her son Barry Gibbons.
The lifelong Anderson resident was well known in the community as an angel with a generous heart who felt no one deserved to go hungry. In 1991 Betty started In As Much at 515 Martin Luther King Blvd. with the help of her son David and her twin sister Patty.
“Mom and Dad had eight kids and they always had kids over from the neighborhood at dinner,” Barry, 55, said. “They always fed anybody that came in the house. That is still a tradition. Every one of my brothers and sisters, and myself, if you come by our houses you get fed.
“My dad (Richard Gibbons) had a dream after retiring to start it (a food kitchen) but he passed on before he had a chance,” Barry said. “After my mother retired she and my brother David came up with the money and started it in my father and her name.”
In As Much was open for dinner Monday through Friday and usually fed about 200 people a day, Barry said. Sometimes up to 300 or 400 people would stop in for a meal, which varied, including soups, chicken and noodles, sloppy joes, lasagna, vegetables and hamburgers.
“She’s helped so many people,” Barry said. “It’s strictly voluntary. She got no money from the government, only from people who volunteer money and time and goods.
“She did not want any government money because the government tells who can and cannot eat there,” he said. “She wanted to make sure that anybody that was hungry could come in anytime they were open — no matter their age, sexual orientation or money.
“We had a lady come in with a fur coat on and we’ve had people with no clothes practically at all on,” he said. “It didn’t matter to her. If they were hungry she would feed them — that was the way it was.”
When Betty started the food kitchen, she did everything and when needed would call upon her family members for help, said Barry, who for a few years volunteered doing security. Betty would make up the menus and had people help her get the food and cook it. In the last three or four years she was a greeter and helped raise funds.
“She had to sit in a wheelchair quite a bit but up until the end had a firm grip on things,” Barry said. “She was determined people would get fed. She didn’t care who they were.”
One of Betty’s biggest supporters and helpers was her second husband, Willie Baker. Willie had been one of her first diners at the food kitchen and in 1995 became her husband.
“My mother was the glue that held it together,” Barry said. “My stepfather underestimates himself in his ability. Although my mother was the glue that held it together, he was the glue that held my mother together.”
Barry and the rest of Betty’s family members are unsure of what will happen to the food kitchen now that Betty is gone. But Barry hopes someone can continue his mother’s legacy.
“God has always provided for them,” Barry said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen now. Hopefully somebody will continue to feed the people because it’s something that needs to be there.”
Martha Fox said her sister Betty was so involved in the community because she loved people, especially children. Often Betty and Willie, who helped run the food bank with her, would sit and talk to people who needed someone to chat with.
“She was a wonderful person,” Fox said. “She did a lot of good for people in need and she asked nothing in return.
“She was grateful to be able to help people and was especially happy when people would help her to help others,” Fox said. “She had a lot of churches and individuals in the community that offered help. A lot of money that she spent was out of her retirement check. If she didn’t have enough money or donations, she still made sure they got fed.”
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