GREENFIELD – If Lyndsey Rea has heard she has big shoes to fill once, she’s heard it a hundred times.
“I don’t think any single one of them realizes just how big those shoes really are,” said Rea, who will take over for Jill Ebbert when she retires as executive director of the Kenneth Butler Memorial Soup Kitchen at the end of this month.
Rea has been shadowing Ebbert since she was hired July 30, learning the ropes of leading the county’s only soup kitchen, housed within a bright red brick building at 202 E. Main St. in downtown Greenfield.
A Greenfield resident since she was 4 years old, Rea is familiar with just how beloved Ebbert has become as a kind and caring fixture in the community.
“Jill has been an amazing mentor. She has a huge passion for this place,” said Rea, the mother of three teenagers, one of whom just started college.
Rea knows a thing or two about beloved community members who have left their mark on Greenfield. Her grandmother, the late Patricia Elmore, was a popular politician who served as the city’s mayor from 1996-2000.
It was Rea’s cousin, Heather Condra, executive director of Greenfield Main Street, who alerted her to the soup kitchen job.
Burnt out from working 65-70 hour weeks as the director of dining for a senior living community, Rea was looking to make a career change.
Before her corporate stint, she worked 15 years doing “anything and everything” at the Jim Dandy restaurant in Greenfield.
“I was an hourly manager, server, cook, dishwasher, hostess,” she said.
Food service has always been enticing to Rea, who studied culinary arts while pursuing a degree in applied science from Ivy Tech.
It was that culinary experience coupled with Rea’s kindness and compassion that told Ebbert she was the right person to fill her shoes.
“She’s got a big heart and she has passion, and she gets along well with whoever she meets. I just think she’s an answer to my prayers,” said Ebbert.
“Sometimes your gut just tells you, and as soon as I met her I felt like, ‘Yes this is the one,’” she said.
Rea wants nothing more than to make Ebbert proud of the work she’ll do taking over at the soup kitchen.
“I can see that this really is her life’s work, so taking that over from somebody is a huge responsibility,” said Rea. “I’m her shadow right now, just trying to absorb all the information being thrown my direction. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I believe I have met more people these past few weeks than I ever have before.”
Rea said getting to know the patrons who frequent the soup kitchen has been both rewarding and enlightening.
“It’s very eye-opening,” she said. “If you actually took the time to sit and talk to some of them you’d realize it wasn’t a choice. They didn’t choose to be in a position where they need the soup kitchen.”
“Life hits us all pretty hard sometimes, and that’s kind of where the enlightenment comes in. Stop judging and take a step back and look and see where you’re able to help instead of making judgements,” she continued.
Ebbert said it’s that type of compassion that makes Rea a perfect fit for the job.
“I want this place to thrive, and I feel she can make that happen. I’ve seen her connect with some of the patrons, and she connects just as well with the staff and patrons and volunteers, so just every day I feel more confident,” she said.
Ebbert feels equally confident that now is the right time for her to retire.
“I think it’s just the right time for me to step out. I need to find me again,” she said.
Ebbert knows it will be tough saying goodbye. She knows she won’t shed a single tear on her last day at work, but a whole bucketful.
“The relationships I’ve made here have meant the world to me,” said Ebbert, who has lived in Hancock County all her life.
“I’ve always said one of my greatest blessings of being here (at the soup kitchen) was meeting the literally thousands and thousands of caring people that I wouldn’t have met if I hadn’t been here … Because of them, I know that the world is still full of very good people, and I think most of them live right here in this community,” she said.
“It’s not that I’ve just met people who have become friends. I’ve met people who I truly love, and that’s going to be hard not seeing those people,” said Ebbert.
That’s not to say she won’t stop by the soup kitchen from time to time.
“I’m not going to disappear off the face of the earth. I’m still behind this place 100%, I just won’t be in the middle of it, but the kitchen will still very much have my support,” she said.
The community is invited to wish Ebbert well at a retirement open house 1-4 p.m. Sept. 21 at Greenfield Christian Church, next door to the soup kitchen.
“That day is also my 15th anniversary of working at the soup kitchen, so I wanted to reach that milestone,” said Ebbert, who plans to fully embrace retirement.
“I don’t want to make decisions. I don’t want deadlines. I just want to play,” she said with a smile.
