The students, staff, and faculty of Ross Medical Education Center Portage campus recently held a food drive to benefit the local Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes. By the end of the drive, they had collected over 400 canned food items. Loaves and Fishes is a volunteer-run local food bank the Portage campus has been collaborating with regularly since 2009 to give back to the community. The drive was held as a friendly competition between all of the classes. One student shared, “I wanted to help with the donations because of the help I’ve received in the past.”
Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes food bank is well-known in the area as an organization that seeks to help families in need. In fact, to ensure that they make the greatest impact, they share their donations with other food pantries in Kalamazoo to spread their outreach. The organization was founded in 1982 by several community churches who decided to come together in order to share resources and respond to the need of the hungry in their area.
Since it was founded, more congregations have joined the effort and now Loaves and Fishes is able to serve all of Kalamazoo County. In addition to the food pantry, the programs have expanded to include meal support, senior commodity programs, agency food support, food packs for kids, and other community food programs. The organization is still the largest charitable food distribution system in the county and is committed to reducing hunger in their area. Not only are they the largest, but they are also still growing; in 2012, they helped feed nearly 127,000 people which is a 13% increase over 2011.
Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes is committed to provide high quality food, to develop high quality client access and support, to nurture our volunteer base, to market our services and our mission, and to improve our efficiency and effectiveness. To find out how you can help, visit their website at http://www.kzoolf.org/ or call them at (269) 488-2617 ext. 209.