Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes
Sometimes it takes a while to convince a partner to come aboard but Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes was already ahead of us. When Milwood Elementary School teachers expressed concern over a number of students coming into school each Monday morning hungry, we approached Loaves & Fishes. They already had a similar idea, wanting to support children during both the school and summer time. They were considering what mechanism of support they could create to make this a reality. It was a perfect match. As with all new partnerships, there was a lot of preliminary homework that had to be done prior to implementation. Loaves & Fishes arranged for CIS and Milwood Elementary to take a field trip to Food Bank of South Central Michigan and a visit to a school in Vicksburg that was implementing a similar program. Taking what was learned from these trips and tailoring it to KPS, the program came to life.
Since 2004, the program has expanded from serving 50 children a week at Milwood Elementary, to around 400 children every week at Milwood Elementary, Edison, Lincoln and Spring Valley. In addition, last summer, 500 children each week received Friday Food packs as part of summer school.
Loaves and Fishes has made the Friday food pack program a substantial part of their budget as a way to help meet the nutritional needs of our children. The generosity of Loaves and Fishes to this community has served as a catalyst for other groups to become involved either through donations or helping Site Coordinators with the food pack distribution. From the volunteers who pack the bags at the Foodbank of South Central Michigan, to the Loaves & Fishes staff and volunteers in Kalamazoo who make the hand off to the volunteers who bring the food to the schools.
Five organizations--Milwood Christian Reformed, MRC Industries, First United Methodist Church, People’s Church, Westwood Christian Reformed Church--have all joined in each and every week to support this program, a genuinely collaborative effort.
Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes is true to its name. They are not only feeding the hungry but they are inspiring a multitude of others within our community to step forth and join in our collective efforts.
Congratulations, Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes, on your 2008 Champ Award!