Feeding the Hungry in KC for One Month You can help!

Adventist Community Services (ACS), ReNewed Hope and KC Regional Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) are hosting a “Feeding Our Friends” food drive to bring shelf-stable food for hotel guests who are homeless and participating in Kansas City’s Houseless Hotel Project.

The Houseless Hotel Project is housing hundreds of homeless individuals in hotels and connecting them to resources that can help them obtain permanent housing. In this project, Lotus Care House is managing hotel arrangements on behalf of the city. Nonprofit organizations, volunteers, and community supporters are rallying around individuals to bring support and services to help them with a new start. However, taking advantage of these programs and services is difficult when hungry. While many volunteers are organizing meals and food deliveries, some of the guests of hotels in this program still do not have consistent access to nutritious food.

How can the community help?

Participate in the Feeding Our Friends food drive by donating healthy, hotel-friendly, easy-prep food items.

Goal

The goal for the Feeding Our Friends food drive is to collect shelf-stable food for hundreds of people to help with breakfasts, lunches, suppers, and snacks at times when other meals are not provided. Guests of the hotels have a microwave in their room or access to one in a hotel lobby. Shelf-stable food items that are suitable for people to eat as a quick, healthy meal or snack from a hotel room will lessen food insecurity among those participating in this program and thus help enhance its success.

Specific food items requested

Canned foods with pop-top/ring pull lids; meal bowls to be made with hot water such as noodle bowls, soup bowls; protein bars; shelf-stable milk/protein shakes; nuts and trail mix; and any other shelf-stable, nutritious food that can be prepared easily in a hotel room.

Collection Sites and Times to Drop Off Donations Monday, May 17 to Friday, June 4

FOR MORE INFORMATION

913.263.2802

KCRCOAD@gmail.com

Dawn D. Miller, KC Regional COAD

Karen Whitson, Adventist Community Services/ReNewed Hope Food Pantry

About the Houseless Hotel Project

The Houseless Hotel Project is a community wide initiative to shelter individuals and families experiencing homelessness in hotels in the Kansas City area. With support from the City of Kansas City, MO and in partnership with service agencies, community volunteers, and local businesses, this unique collaboration has provided immediate shelter to hundreds of our most vulnerable community members with a path towards housing stability, stable income, and improved quality of life. The Houseless Hotel Project is the community working together to uplift those experiencing homelessness and strengthen our community as a whole.

About Adventist Community Services

Adventist Community Services (ACS) is the Humanitarian Relief/Community Support and Disaster Response Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America.  ACS works through the local congregations of the church at the local, state, and federal level.  ACS is one of the 7 founding members of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NOVAD) and is one of the country’s leading Donations Management faith-based partners. ACS has a long history of working collaboratively with other peer faith-based & community organizations serving individuals in times of need. https://www.nadadventist.org/departments/adventist-community-services

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/

If you would like to contribute with a financial donation, ReNewed Hope is seeking funds to pay for vehicle rentals to transport food to hotels. Also, beyond the Feeding Our Friends food drive, a food van or bus will enable ReNewed Hope to create a food pantry on wheels, serving people facing hunger by distributing food directly from a van or bus. This will enable ReNewed Hope as an Adventist Community Services agency to serve people facing hunger throughout the KC metro area in multiple locations, collaborating with other nearby churches and organizations.

Donate online here and choose “Food Pantry Fund” https://adventistgiving.org/#/org/ANGFLL/envelope/start

Information provided by Karen Whitson, director, ReNewed Hope Food Pantry