GREEN BAY, Wis (NBC 26) -- For nearly 15 years a vacuum repair shop owner in Green Bay has been contributing to his neighborhood in a very unique way. Ken Jensen and his son Keith, who co-own Keith's Vacuum Center have given away hundreds of pounds of food to their neighbors three days a week all out of his repair shop.
At Keith's Vacuum Center in Green Bay, a family-run business, they specialize in making sure you don't have to throw your vacuum cleaner in the trash when it breaks.
"That's the main part of our business, the service end of it," says Ken Jensen.
Co-owners Ken Jensen and his son Keith have managed to stay in business now for 60 years, tackling all the repairs most can't handle. But it was when Ken started donating vacuums to an assisted living facility for domestic abuse victims when he really started noticing the difference his shop could make in the community.
"They donate them to gals that go into apartments on their own and they always have some little children and never have a vacuum cleaner," says Ken describing the hundreds of donations he's made over the last 30 years to places like the Freedom House.
Last year about 300 vacuums were donated to families who could use them, but this little shop and it's owners have taken their generosity much further than that. Ken says about 15 years ago they started collecting day old bread, pizza that would be thrown away after sitting under a heat lamp for more than 45 minutes, and also collecting produce that would expire soon from local stores all in an effort to help their community.
"We stop there and pick up between 400 to 450 pizzas a week and we pick up between 500 and 550 loaves of bread from Breadsmith," says Jensen.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday the vacuum repair shop is transformed into a mini food pantry and the community has really come to appreciate it.
"I'm a single mother and I have two children and got introduced here through Debby and Steve, some wonderful people that I know," says Terry Lee Saldna who utilizes the mini-pantry to supplement her family's meals.
Ken says most of the produce he collects would have been thrown away so he gives the majority of it to his neighbors who could use it and everything that's leftover he drops off at churches and food pantries across northeast Wisconsin.
"There is never a loaf of bread wasted," says Jensen.
