Churches + Schools = food

Lea Aschkenase and Shelby Connell discuss efforts to provide food security for children in schools.

By Phil Haslanger
Collaboration Project Story Team

For Geneva Campus Church, it was collecting backpacks for students at West High School. For The Church at Christ Memorial, it was taking the teachers from Leopold Elementary out for a social get-together. For Redeemer City Church, it was taking care of kids at Huegel Elementary School so the African-American parent group could have a time to meet.

For many congregations, linking up with Madison-area schools covers a wide range of activities, For some, it also involves providing food through a network of food pantries that serves low-income families. 

All of those connections came together on Nov. 19 as representatives of a range of congregations gathered as the Collaboration Project’s Church + Schools affinity group at the Madison Church of Christ on Fish Hatchery Road.

The participants talked about some of the strengths of their connections with schools - meeting the practical needs of students, empowering lay leaders in congregations, learning how to do deep listening to discern what was really needed. They also talked about some of the challenges - how to be strategic in meeting needs, how to earn the trust of the staff in the schools, how to sustain energy among the volunteers from the congregation.

With all of that, though, one focus looking ahead is on food - something many churches are already involved in providing schools, something that holds a possibility for great collaboration over the next two months. 

A poem by a sixth grader who is experiencing homelessness in Madison touched the hearts of many in the room as Lea Aschkenase, the founder of Food for Thought, read it aloud:

The Belly Monster

My belly rumbles
It is reminding me that last night I gave my supper to my little sister
My Mom saw and she gave me some of her meal, but she needs it for the baby

My belly rumbles
Today I have school
I will fill it up and sneak a couple things into my backpack for later"
If we get into shelter we will be OK,
but if we don’t then we will have something to eat.

My belly rumbles
Next week there is no school
I have to prepare for my belly rumble,
I eat smaller and smaller amounts so my belly feels ready
I drink more water

My belly rumbles
I wish I was old enough to go to the food pantry by myself
I could bring back food for us to keep in a bin
The bin where everything is
Our stuff, our everything

My belly rumbles 
Time to hurry into school
Breakfast is waiting
The belly rumble monster needs to be fed
My belly rumbles

Lea explained that with the high number of families living in poverty in the Madison school district, the panties at eight schools - six elementary, one middle and one high school - help meet an important need for families. She said that parents tell volunteers that the school pantries feels like safe places, are often more accessible than other pantries and are in a familiar environment. 

Three groups that work to provide food for families - Food for Thought, Selfless Ambition and The River Food Pantry - have formed a collaboration to work on childhood hunger called Food for Success. 

Shelby Connell, the program coordinator for Food for Thought, told attendees that there are three kinds of needs in the school food pantries - material (the food itself, especially fresh produce), volunteers who can staff the pantries, bring in the food, shelve it, do inventories, and money - it costs about $13,000 a year for each school pantry. 

All of this provided a context for Jon Anderson, executive director of the Collaboration Project, to talk about the Collaboration Collection. This is an invitation to congregations to gather a specific list of items (see list below) for the school food pantries between now and the end of January. Then on January 30, volunteers from the congregations will gather at Cherokee Middle School to sort and pack all the donated food items.

Anderson described this as “a tangible outlet for collaboration” among churches to serve the community. By timing the food drive to conclude at the end of January, it will provide food to the pantries at one of the times in the year when it is most needed.

Details about the food drive - including a plan for a bit of friendly competition among the participating churches - will be posted on the Collaboration Project’s Facebook page. You can also email Jon Anderson for more information.

“It would be a cool idea if churches bought in to the food drive,” Anderson said. But he noted that many churches already do many things, so he wanted this idea to be “a grace-filled freedom space.” 

Preferred Foods for the Collaborative Food Drive

Boxes of cereal (prefer whole grain and low sugar)

Peanut butter or nut butter

Canned fruit (light syrup or in own juice, individual or regular size)

Canned entrees with meat (pasta with meat, chili with meat, beef stew, hearty soup with protein, etc.)

Canned proteins (tuna, chicken, etc.)

Microwavable Mac and Cheese (individual cups)

Snack bars with protein (breakfast bars, granola bars, energy bars)

Canned beans

Shelf stable milk (8 oz, 32 oz)

Shelf stable yogurt (individual size)

Canola oil (16 or 24 oz bottles)

Canned veggies

Dry beans

Beef sticks

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Jon Anderson outlines the plans for the Church + Schools group.