Dare to Care and Partners Change Lives Daily
People have various perspectives on the holidays. For some, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is an opportunity to revel in their good fortune with friends and family and to mirthfully overdo it on eating Thanksgiving food and stuffing children’s stockings. But for many others, this period is a time of scarcity and struggle.
The Dare to Care Food Bank works diligently to fulfill its mission: “To lead our community to feed the hungry and conquer the cycle of need.” The organization is noteworthy for many reasons, including its ambition to not only stamp out hunger in Kentuckiana but also defeat the cycle of need, the complex web of challenges faced by so many of our neighbors. Only by resolving these challenges will people truly move forward and achieve success.
Hunger
1 in 6 people in Kentuckiana does not get enough to eat to live a healthy life.
The Redeemer Lutheran Church and Jewish Family & Career Services (JFCS) are two Dare to Care partners with staff working tirelessly to provide nutrition and comfort to neighbors in need. Located in West Louisville, Redeemer Lutheran is a small congregation of 75 worshipers eager to contribute to their community.
Once a month, usually on the fourth Wednesday, volunteers at the Redeemer Food Pantry distribute food, mostly nonperishable food and fresh produce provided by Dare to Care. How valuable is the partnership? Last year, Redeemer Lutheran served 1,688 clients representing 6,322 family members.
“Without Dare to Care, this pantry could not exist,” says Shelia Koshewa of Redeemer Lutheran. “Although we obtain small grants, regular contributions from church members, and occasional contributions from other churches and individuals, the vast majority of our resources come from Dare to Care. We also host Dare to Care Cooking Matters classes that receive rave reviews.”
Each week 53,400 Kentuckians receive food from a food bank.
The Cooking Matters program, a Dare to Care partnership with Share our Strength, offers culinary lessons to increase nutrition awareness and knowledge of critical home economics. Volunteers incorporate their backgrounds in culinary arts to teach families about food prep and food safety, and they hand out recipes and cooking activities to take home. There’s even a Cooking Matters blog!
According to Ms. Koshewa, Dare to Care partnerships provide a broad range of support for the local community. For example, nursing students at the University of Louisville set up a mini-clinic during Food Pantry dates, during which they provide services such as HIV testing and health education. Flu shots, dental check-ups, and even help signing up for the Affordable Care Act are also available. Distribution of warm clothing began in November.
“The Food Pantry is really our primary way to communicate with our community,” continues Ms. Koshewa. “We’re able to register individuals for other health and wellness opportunities, such as Freedom from Smoking. In short, Dare to Care enables us to be a blessing in our community, an extremely positive experience.”
Like Redeemer Lutheran, JFCS offers counseling services in conjunction with its Food Pantry. The non-profit organization has served the entire Louisville community since 1908. JFCS helped over 9,000 people last year with a variety of services, such as family counseling, career advisement, and several programs specifically for seniors.
Nearly 90 percent of counties with the highest food-insecurity rates in the country are located in the South.
“Our clients represent a wide variety of people from many different socio-economic groups, races, religions, zip codes in the city, and national origins,” explains Judy Freundlich Tiell, executive director of JFCS. “We have a sliding fee scale, and we work to help people learn the tools they need to meet the transitions and challenges of life related to family, relationships, aging, education, work, and financial stability.”
JFCS also operates as a closed Dare to Care Food Pantry site, providing supplemental food to 100–140 clients per month. As a part of the case management program, the Food Pantry works to make sure all a family’s basic needs are satisfied.
“Dare to Care provides us the opportunity to ‘shop’ for free food, which we do twice per month,” Ms. Tiell continues. “They give us wonderful training and support about food insecurity and food safety, which we are then able to use to educate our clients and volunteers. Dare to Care allows us to fill in food that is not brought in by volunteers to our agency, and we truly appreciate our partnership.”
JFCS Food Pantry clients represent every type of Louisville resident, including seniors, single-parent families, refugees, immigrants, and other people who may be struggling financially.
“Partnering with Dare to Care has also brought us valuable trainings, good support, and information to make the case about food insecurity,” Ms. Tiell concludes. “We appreciate the strong, open communication we have with Dare to Care and the opportunity to help our clients here at JFCS as part of their ongoing services.”
Those in need of food assistance are not strangers. One in six people in Kentuckiana suffer food insecurity. Support for our neighbors begins when we make the effort to financially support, volunteer, or donate food to Dare to Care and other programs such as Redeemer Lutheran and Jewish Family & Career Services. Together, we can help feed our friends and neighbors and finally eliminate the treacherous cycle of need.