Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.149 | Feat. Executive Pastor Ben Taylor from The Vineyard

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Vineyard Church’s Ben Taylor on Feed My Starving Children: Syracuse MobilePack (March 18–21, 2026) Host Mike Mesi welcomes Ben Taylor, executive pastor at Vineyard Church, to Good News York’s new facility at the Old Spaghetti Warehouse and discusses Vineyard’s ministries and its annual Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) event. Taylor shares his background as a former wastewater engineer, his move into ministry, and Vineyard’s “come as you are and be loved” culture, plus weekly food pantries across its three Central New York locations (State Fair site, Syracuse site, and Auburn) and an Espanol congregation. He explains the Syracuse FMSC MobilePack (March 18–21, 2026), where over 2,000 volunteers transform rooms into an FDA-approved meal-packing site, aiming to fund $129,000 to feed 1,200 kids for a year; donations and volunteer slots open March 9 at vineyardny.org, with updates via @vineyardNYStateFair. 00:00 Welcome to New Studio 00:47 Meet Ben Taylor 01:13 From Engineer to Pastor 03:17 Vineyard Church Overview 05:02 Come As You Are 06:39 Feed My Starving Children 06:59 How the Packing Works 09:25 Origins and Impact Stats 11:43 Volunteers and Super Bowls 12:45 Donations and Sponsorships 15:09 How to Sign Up 16:01 Why Giving Matters 18:26 Where the Meals Go 20:02 Final Plugs and Wrap Up 21:24 Closing and Tomorrow Tease

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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 Perdissy Follow me on all socials at Mike B TV

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. It's 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 Vineyard 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 passed. 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. You are, you are. 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 too 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 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. Oh, yeah. Ye old Funkin Waffles. Yield. So we had church there. And so Chris was my friend. And so we have had a great relationship. And 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, nope, absolutely not. Like, that's not something I'm going to do. And but I just believe that there was a call from God in that. And that I was 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. You know, as they say, you know, tell me one person who wasn't afraid to take a leap. It's impossible, right? If 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 Femke my Starbent 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 Saville out 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 Español 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 every single week. So in all we're in the food pantries on Thursdays. And then at Syracuse site and 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'm not brushed up. I haven't brushed up on my religious linda, but are you giving sermons? Is that the proper? Yep, yeah, I did. All right. Got it. Are you, had 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 this. Preacher, right. Yeah, yeah. So you look kind of like the special guest. Yeah, when I show up, when I show up, people are like, like, something new.

Yeah. What? Chris Honest, I lead pastor. He does the majority of preaching. He's really good at it. Yeah. I don't need to do that much. Have you been going to this church since you were young?

Nope. I grew up in a different denomination. Okay. I was United Methodist growing up. And then I, 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? Which I believe, you know, there's misconceptions out there that people, you know, 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. 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. So like we've got people that roll in every Sunday from every walks of life from ethnicities, cultures, backgrounds, sobriety, socioeconomic status. I mean, we've got the whole entire spectrum of people. And, you know, our staff and more so, though, our leadership team and our volunteers really live that out. So like, it doesn't matter who you are when you come in. You're going to be loved. You're going to be accepted. You're going to 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 ever loved. And then our deep belief that outreach and service to the community is core to the gospel of Jesus, that like 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 the nominations 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. Prove you 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, like a lot of churches in Syracuse are doing a lot of great things. Lots of good workout. I think we've been specifically blessed with a facility that can kind of accommodate some of these things. So with Feed My Starvin 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 Mana Pack. that is rice, veggies, soy, and vitamins.

And so this little meal provides the nutrition for kids, specifically kids, or for kids that are growing, for them to be able to eat and survive across the world. So that's like, so all a 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. world to feed hungry kids everywhere. Like you name, you name a country and you name a continent that you think kids would need this food, this food gets to them. Right from Syracuse. And obviously other locations as well. But right. So the Feed My Sardient 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 And 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 of all of cards in the country. There's probably a couple others that are doing. Sure. But this is something that we started.

This will be our 16th year. So we've been doing this since 2009. And our meals have reached. We've packed almost six million meals as 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. Yeah, so this is like the Fem My Starving Children Organization as a whole. Sure.

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 has this, have you guys been doing? We've been doing this since 2009. Be my starving children has been existence since 1982. Yeah.

Now is this something that you reached out to them or they came to you? How did the marriage come together? Yeah, yeah. So the founding pastors of our church, John and Gwen Elmer, they were looking for an organization that they could do some global outreach with. Like at that point we had our food pantries, so we were feeding people locally. But they wanted, they were thinking, you know, what can we do that's more global? And so they did a bunch of research on that.

organizations, you know, they were looking for a super trustworthy organization. They wanted a high, like, success rate to actually get food to people that eat it. And so Gwen came across, feed my starving children. And it's 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. I mean, we're engaged, we'll be engaging businesses and all of our church people.

And so, 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 it. Ben, you're so right because, and it's kind of an apples and orange comparison. But I always say like, you know, my daughter and I work 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 of extra reward inside. Absolutely. Yeah, and it's because of that feeling, because it's been such a rewarding thing, and people love doing it. 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. That is something that, hey, you that aren't even come out of the church. Yeah, let's go. Let's pass. That's what it's about.

Now, I would assume, is it fair to see that, So to be fair, I should mention March 18th through the 21st is the Sierra Use Vineyards Connects, Feed My Starving Children. That is what we're here to talk about. What is the third to say this is kind of your Super Bowl as the GM? Is this, and is this kind of a year-round planning deal or is it a plug-in-go at this point? We have three Super Bowls, Christmas, Easter, and Feed My Starvin Children. Right, Christmas Easter, obviously. I should have been for our services, though.

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 most, 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 volunteer. 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 if you might start off and children as well is it takes $106 to feed a meal a day for a kid for a whole entire year. Really? Right. So when was the last time that you went to Costco or Wegmans and spent less than $106? It's impossible. It's impossible. It's neat. genuinely impossible right now. Right.

So you can't even, you know, 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. 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, you know, $106 or the volunteers will each pack about $80 worth of food for, you know, each person that's packing. So they can bring that along and they can be a sponsor.

You know, we have different sponsorship levels that we can talk about. Yeah, we see it. There's the child sponsor, which is the 106. Yeah. Yeah, tell us a little bit about the family sponsor, the classrooms, go through all those packages. Yeah, you know, it's, 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. When you put it in the perspective of feed away classroom of 20 children for an entire year.

A whole entire year. Yep. It says a lot. Yep. And then, you know, obviously, we can go out from there and do the math, but $35,000 for a village sponsor. And, like, that's feeding a whole entire village of kids, $25,000. And so it's incredible. So we're inviting people to, yeah, partner with us to, if you would like to be a business, a sponsor.

This runs through a separate 501c3 that we have called Vineyard Connects. So if your business, you know, has rules around donating to religious organizations, you know, we have a separate organization that you can donate to that runs the program. And, 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.

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, vineyard-my.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 evening, some later slots for people that maybe work till five, five or six. We've got some 330 to 930 slots later in the day.

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, you know, we're always talking about, I wish we could change the world.

I wish we could make the world a better place. I think that is literally what you guys are doing. And it's absolutely amazing. Yeah, I, you know, 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 few of 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 a little bit. And so what can I do? I can be generous with my time and with my money. And that allows me 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 riveting, man. And by the way, that's the right mantra is we all we all talk about you know you 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 i just think it's absolutely wonderful what you do is there anything else you want to talk about outside of this or or more about this before we uh before we go yeah i just i encourage people like if if you haven't engaged with a with a with a global type organization. And if you haven't,

that's something you haven't been familiar with in your life. I'd just encourage you to like try it out. Like 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 like 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 continued to being joyful and to even receiving. So like it's it's something I encourage people to get involved in. Are you 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. Exactly the way you were just taught. 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. 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 going to be doing that again in May. We're going to send down, I know, 15, 20 people to the Dominican Republic. with an area that we know has a partnership with few my sarban children. So some of our people can go down there and experience the food getting to these kids. That's got the best.

Yeah, I haven't done it myself, but I will one day. And 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. Yep. 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. Yep. You can track with us online at VineyardMy.m.org. If you want to learn more about the food pantries, you can go to Vineyard, NYU.org backslash pantry. There's a link right on the top of our menu by there. So that's more about it. So if you need food or if you'd like to volunteer locally, week in a week out, We have that available at the food pantry for volunteering and for giving, of course. And if you need to receive food, like we are, 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 servant 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.

Yeah. You, my friend, are one of 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 honorling great. It's an honor to have interviewed you. Ben Taylor, executive pastor, again, at Vineyard Church. Feed my Starving Children, Syracuse, Moldapak, March 18th through the 21st, uh, 2006 at Vineyard NY state fair or on some social media at Vineyard, NY. Uh, that's it for good news, York. Coming to you from our new location. Our brand new set is almost ready. Stick around for that for now you get the train car and I actually kind of like this.

It's very good. You know what? Maybe, maybe we should just do it here. You can follow me on all socials at Mike B. TV. We are on all socials at Good News York. Good News York.com brought to you by Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Goh.com. And we will see you tomorrow. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say too.

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