By Richard L. Gaw
Staff Writer

After leaving W.L. Gore in 2024, where she led a large global engineering and manufacturing team, West Grove resident Julie Bensen threw herself into volunteering at local agencies.

One of those was Kennett Area Community Service (KACS), where beginning last November, she helped stock food items and manage inventory at its Food Cupboard.

“I loved my work at W.L. Gore, but it was getting to be so big that I could not immediately see my impact every day,” she said from her new office, where she recently began her new role as KACS’ Chief Executive Officer, replacing interim CEO Carrie Freeman.

“Through volunteering, I quickly fell in love with KACS. I watched volunteers leave at the end of the day knowing they had done something meaningful for their neighbors, and I saw the camaraderie and respect shared between staff and the community. So when the CEO position became available, it felt serendipitous—I already knew and valued the organization, and I was eager to step in and serve.”

Bensen arrives at KACS with two decades of senior leadership experience. While the non-profit industry is new to her, the intrinsic skills needed to run an organization of this size are not. While her professional track record includes leading diverse, multidisciplinary and multilingual teams through times of growth, transformation, and challenge, she also brings to KACS skills that are not often seen in spread sheets: empowering individuals, fostering collaboration across differences, and creating environments where people can grow and succeed.

“I come into this role with a passion for people, and am excited to work with the incredible team, volunteers, donors and those we serve in the community at large,” she said. “Throughout my career, I’ve built strong relationships across a wide range of stakeholders, and these are skills that will be invaluable here.”

“Julie’s strategic vision, deep operational experience, and genuine passion for people make her an ideal leader for this next chapter,” Freeman said. “We are thrilled to welcome her and confident in the future we will build together.”

New location, same borough

For a few years, KACS orchestrated a capital campaign to raise funding for the construction of a new 26,000 square-foot facility on 5.61 acres along West Cypress Street. The facility’s price tag, last estimated at $17 million - would be paid for by private and public donations and state funding, and a capital campaign soon followed that galvanized the entire agency and its many area partners.

At the same time KACS, its board and its building and capital campaign committees were moving forward, the agency’s plans were overlapping with the Kennett Borough’s move to the former Genesis Building on South Broad Street, a prime space now occupied by government offices and the borough’s Police Department. As part of its strategic plan to maximize the borough’s assets and improve its finances, Kennett Square Borough Council approached former KACS CEO Leah Reynolds last fall with a proposal to relocate KACS’ operations and establish Borough Hall as its’ new home.

After several months of further discussions, Borough Council and the KACS Board of Directors recently – and unanimously – approved pursuing negotiations for KACS to purchase a significant portion of space within the main building of Borough Hall. The agency plans to move from its current offices on Cedar Street to the new location in early 2027.

“There are still the mechanics to work through around details and agreements about how it will be retrofitted into the building, but overall, we have so much optimism and excitement for our new home,” Bensen said. “By choosing an existing space, it will allow us to move to a new location faster at a lower investment, in a way that is sustainable.

“Borough Hall is a long-standing building in the heart of Kennett Square, not only for the staff, but for the families who visit us.”

New challenges

Bensen takes over as the head of an organization that has, like thousands of other food banks like it across the U.S., endured federal funding cuts exceeding $1 billion that are leading to reduced food supplies. Further, experts are predicting that the ramifications of these cuts could lead to food insecurity, in the wake of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcing this past Spring substantial cuts to key programs that support food banks, including the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) – as part of an initiative to reduce government spending.

“When it comes to funding availability for the non-profit industry, this is a challenging moment right now,” Bensen said. “What I have been impressed with over the last few months is the creativity with which KACS is approaching the need to secure food and valuable items for the families we serve. Our Food Cupboard is reaching out to local grocers and other sources for more donations, as well as partnering with other organizations.”

Bensen said her focus the first year will be to reach out directly to the communities that benefit from the agency’s services, “in order to keep sufficient donations coming into to the organization, which will allow us to feed and house those in need even with the uncertainty of federal funding,” she said. “We live in a community that is gracious and supportive of our mission, and we will continue to broaden awareness, so that we can receive additional support.”

Moving one of the most influential agencies in Southern Chester County forward, Bensen said, will rely on sound and sustainable decisions, developing new and strengthening existing partnerships in the community and continuing to share the mission of the agency.

“From a style standpoint, I have always led with authenticity, so I want to be out in the community, being honest about where we are, where we are going, what our challenges are and how people can help us,” she said. “I am also an incredible optimist, and there is something powerful about being passionate about what we’re doing and sharing our meaningful impact.”

To make a donation to Kennett Area Community Service, visit www.kacsimpact.org. 

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].