The Kentucky Council of Churches' Task Force on Hunger founded the Kentucky Food Bank (KFB) in 1982 in response to an increasing hunger problem in the state. The first office was located in the basement of Christ Episcopal Church while the first warehouse was a small garage near the office. The first food was distributed in May 1983 and by the end of the first year the food bank had distributed 80,000 pounds of product to its 5 member agencies.
In 1984, KFB was accepted as a member of the Second Harvest national food-banking network and during that same year moved its warehouse to a 5,000 square foot facility donated by Bob Swope Ford. The food bank office moved several more times and, in 1986 space was built inside the distribution warehouse and the offices were relocated there.
Product distribution increased rapidly over the years and by 1988 had surpassed 1 million pounds and continued to increase throughout the 1990's to over 10 million pounds in 1999. The number of member agencies also increased significantly over the years to 120 active agencies in 2000.
After several years of fund-raising and planning, in December 1998 the food bank was very pleased to move into a new 23,000 square foot state of the art warehouse and office facility on Peterson Drive in Elizabethtown where it now resides.
Finally, in November 2000, the Kentucky Food Bank was renamed America's Second Harvest of Kentucky's Heartland to better align itself with the national organization, America's Second Harvest, to which it is affiliated.