Adventist Community Services joined many organizations and volunteers in the Kansas City metro area from May 17 to June 4 to help make a difference for their neighbors who are homeless and currently being housed for 90 days in hotels in Kansas City. Housing homeless individuals in hotels is an innovative housing program from the city of Kansas City, Missouri, being managed by Lotus Care House called the Houseless Hotel Project. Many nonprofit organizations, volunteers, and community supporters are rallying around the guests of hotels to bring social services to help them with a new start.
However, taking advantage of a variety of social programs and services is hard to do when you are hungry.
To ease food anxiety among guests of hotels who did not have consistent access to food, the Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the Central States Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and the Iowa-Missouri Conference of Seventh-day Adventists worked together to host a Feeding Our Friends food drive for specific shelf-stable food items that are uniquely suitable for people to eat as a quick meal or snack from a hotel room. Guests of the hotels have a microwave in their room or access to one in hotel lobbies. Canned food was requested with pop-top/ring pull lids. The KC Regional Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) also assisted with organization, volunteers and promotion to the community.
Karen Whitson, director of ReNewed Hope, a Harvesters agency and an Adventist Community Services agency serving the KC metro area, led the Feeding Our Friends food drive, which collected about 2,000 pounds of healthy, hotel-friendly food items.
“I know many people want to help the homeless and others who are facing hard times but they don’t always know how. By organizing the food drive, we created a way for anyone who wants to help to join this team effort,” Whitson said. “By bringing food to a nearby collection site, people from all over the KC metro area were able to participate in the city’s innovative way to help people who don’t have permanent housing. Providing access to nutritious food helps give homeless individuals in this program the best chance of succeeding in mental health, addiction recovery and job skills programs to create a new start in life.”
Two amazing days
Jody Dickhaut, Adventist Community Services Missouri State director and pastor of the Adventist churches in Hannibal and Moberly, Missouri, rented a truck from Penske and visited collection sites on Thursday and Friday, June 3 and 4. Alan Harvey, pastor of the Lee’s Summit and Kingsville churches in Missouri joined him to help on Thursday. Kent Dunwoody, pastor of the Kansas City Central Church joined him to help on Friday.
The collected food was taken to Southern Platte Emergency Assistance Center and Jewish Family Services as well as ReNewed Hope at the New Haven Adventist Church in Overland Park and the Linwood Boulevard Temple in Kansas City. SPEAC and JFS are also Harvesters agencies in the Kansas City area serving homeless individuals in hotels.
Volunteers from New Haven Church in Overland Park joined volunteers from Linwood Boulevard at the Linwood Boulevard Temple, in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 3 to sort and organize food boxes to take to hotel guests. More than 100 boxes were organized and prepared for guests who are homeless at a nearby hotel.
The food drive event ended with a taco salad dinner hosted for about 40 guests of hotels in the city center. Food for the dinner was donated by members of Chapel Oaks, Olathe New Life Community, New Haven, and Linwood Boulevard Temple. Members from Olathe, New Haven and Linwood churches also helped served the meal and took time to listen to stories from those who are homeless, to pray with them and encourage them. Pastor Keith Hackle, director of Adventist Community Services for the Central States Conference joined the team and helped serve the meal.
“We are so grateful to the many community-based partners helping to serve those most in need here in Kansas City,” said Brian Platt, city manager for Kansas City, Missouri. “Groups such as these event organizers have such a tremendous positive impact on our communities and provide support in so many more ways than we could ever manage on our own.”
What’s Next? How can you help?
While Jody Dickhaut was driving around picking up and delivering food from the food drive, Whitson met with a team at Kansas City Area Transportation Authority. KCATA told them during the meeting that they are willing to donate a city bus to be transformed into a food pantry on wheels by removing seats and installing racks for food. Harvesters will help to transform the bus. To make this happen, they now need to raise funds for the racks and equipment to put on the bus in place of seats, insurance, and maintenance. Once everything is in place, Adventist Community Services will partner with Adventist churches and community organizations to take the bus throughout the KC metro area to serve people who are facing food insecurity.
If you want to join this team effort and support this initiative financially, it is easy to donate online. Visit our pantry web site at www.rhfp.org and click on Donate Today. Select the Food Pantry Fund. Email Whitson at karen@rhfp.org to let her know the amount you are designating to the Food Pantry on Wheels.
Photos Courtesy of ReNewed Hope
ReNewed Hope wants to give a big thank you
to these organizations for setting up collection sites and donating food!
Belton 3 Angels SDA Church
Bethel SDA Church
Chapel Oaks SDA Church
Gladstone
Independence
Kansas City Central
Linwood Blvd
New Haven
Olathe New Life
AdventHealth Centra Care Olathe
AdventHealth Centra Care Overland Park
AdventHealth Centra Care Shawnee
About KC Regional COAD: The KC Regional COAD is a body of voluntary agencies and faith-based groups and people who Serve and Care: These non-profit agencies and faith groups seek to: Communicate, Cooperate, Coordinate and Collaborate in times of disasters. The 4 C’s, as they are known by COAD members, are the essential actions needed to effectively serve, in the event and time of a disaster. Through collaboration, cooperation, communication, and coordination of goods and services, time, energy, and funds are better utilized, and the victims of disasters are better served. https://kcregionalcoad.org/
About ReNewed Hope: ReNewed Hope is a Harvesters agency and Adventist Community Services center operated by the New Haven Seventh-day Adventist Church in Overland Park, KS (8714 Antioch Road). Food pantry services help fill the hunger gap for individuals and families living with food insecurity throughout the greater Kansas City area. https://renewedhopefoodpantry.org/
