09/04/2026
A great spotlight on local hero Johnny Barnes. Johnny helps in a million ways with food distribution in our area, working with Pie in the Sky and Hastings Homebound ministries - and just showing up whenever he sees a crowd. hahaha! Pie in the Sky St. Johns is having a big FUN-raiser hoedown on OCTOBER 15, 5:00P-9:00, Tringali Barn, featuring some mighty fine fried chicken. Please read this great story and the link for tickets is at the end! Good time and good food guaranteed!
A Little Fried Chicken, A Little Pie & A Whole Lot of History
When I first arrived in Hastings, I was a city girl plopped down in the country, and there were plenty of things about this little town I didn’t understand.
One of the biggest mysteries happened every Wednesday.
I’d drive north on Main Street and suddenly there were trucks everywhere—surrounding one particular building and lining both sides of the road. Then, sometime after lunch, they would all disappear.
The next Wednesday? Same thing.
Before long, I noticed something else. On those same Wednesdays, the most wonderful aroma filled the air. It was familiar, taking me right back to my grandmother’s kitchen when I was a little girl.
Fried chicken.
Mystery solved.
Soon my little foreign car was parked right there among all those trucks, and I was standing in line with folks who came from five counties to get some of Johnny’s famous fried chicken.
Then came the spring of 2009.
I was sitting in Johnny’s one Wednesday when a crazy thought crossed my mind. Johnny didn’t serve dessert. What if I opened a little pie shop next door, sold pies, and used the money to help people in the community?
I asked Johnny.
He said yes.
Years later, he admitted he probably never would have agreed if he’d known one small detail: I had never made a pie.
But there I was, in a rented space next to Johnny’s Kitchen, learning to make pies—and somehow, alongside a Hastings legend, a little phenomenon called Pie in the Sky was born.
Life moved on. Johnny’s eventually closed. Pie stopped being about pies and grew into something neither of us could have imagined back then.
Then, all these years later, after a news story about eggs, my phone rang one Sunday. It was Johnny.
The same Johnny whose fried chicken first drew me through his doors. The same Johnny who took a chance on a city girl with a crazy idea and absolutely no pie-making experience.
And once again, Johnny said yes.
This time, he offered to resurrect his famous fried chicken to help Pie in the Sky celebrate 10 years of delivering fresh, healthy produce to our senior neighbors in need.
Talk about coming full circle.
Back then, Pie was a little part of Johnny’s.
Now Johnny is a little part of Pie.
We know you loved that chicken. We know you’ve talked about it, remembered it and wished you could taste it just one more time.
Well, friends, Johnny’s famous fried chicken is back.
And this time, every delicious bite comes with a side of something even better—helping provide fresh, healthy food to hungry seniors right here in our community.
Funny how life works. Sometimes the road takes you a long way around, only to bring you right back to where it all began—with an old friend, a good cause, and one really good piece of fried chicken.
Get your tickets here 🍗 https://www.pieintheskystjohns.org/harvest-hoedown-2026
Malea Guiriba
Founder/CEO
Pie in the Sky Community Alliance, Inc.
