10 Years Ago - The Food for Hope Story
Please bear with me a moment while I reminisce about the beginning of Food for Hope, which was exactly 10 years ago this month! I am in awe of what this community has empowered us to accomplish, and the ways our programs have been built through a collective passion for the welfare of our children.
In August 2014, Pastor Ruben Villarreal of ThornCreek Church, Mayor Heidi Wiliams of Thornton, & soon-to-be Executive Director Emily Stromquist decided to convene members of the community around the cause of hunger. At the time, Mayor Williams had recently had an experience seeing bare cupboards in a resident’s home, and she was left with a heavy burden to help with hunger in a bigger way. During the same season, Pastor Villarreal had been feeling led by God to start a ministry providing weekend food to local children experiencing food insecurity. His connection to a similar program in another state provided a template for what would become Food for Hope.
How do you start a movement from scratch? We decided to bring together local stakeholders to see who might be willing to partner with us in this effort. I remember not being sure who would actually come to the meeting at the City of Thornton building, but I was encouraged when many local leaders of businesses, organizations, and churches showed up! What should we call this program? How do we raise money? How do we ensure this program continues once it starts? These were just some of the questions we tackled in those early days. The overall consensus was that the most important thing was that children, who are most vulnerable to adverse circumstances, should never have to be without food.
In September of that year, I remember receiving the very first check donated to “Food for Hope.” When I found the envelope, I remember falling to my knees in disbelief. Someone in the community - a stranger! - chose to invest in our effort?! My reaction may sound dramatic, but I think that was the moment I realized we may actually be able to make this thing happen. A couple of months later we took our first 50 weekend food bags to McElwain Elementary school. At the time we were directly purchasing items off of the shelf at a discount grocery store. Imagine the looks we got when we rolled up to the register with our overflowing carts every week! But we pressed forward and grew and continued to find better ways to make our mission a reality.
Now a staff of seven, we have one employee whose entire job is to coordinate and order food! We receive an average of 6,000 pounds of food a week and distribute it back out to in-school food banks, weekend food bags, and School Fuel snacks. We are able to curate culturally sensitive and healthy food choices to give families who are struggling dignity even as they access the resources they need. What began as a desire to help, has turned into a community effort that continues to blow me away each day. The hope is that students receiving nutritional support from us will become successful, contributing members to our community and they will partner with us to help even more children coming through school in the future.
Thank you to everyone who continues to come alongside us. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years bring. Cheers to full bellies and hopeful hearts!
