HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Kids Food Basket founder and CEO Bridget Clark Whitney says delivering 176,000 meals to 70 sites for children in Kent, Allegan, Ottawa and Muskegon counties since mid-March may seem like a Herculean task, but Kids Food Basket is up to the challenge. (Listen to the complete interview.)
The pandemic delivered a triple punch to the child-focused meal charity — increasing the need as the cost o f purchasing food for the meals spiked 44 percent — and COVID-19 prevents the usual 250 volunteers from packing the meals.
“Our work is emergency work,” she said. “We’ve been doing emergency work for 18 years. This is just a particularly poignant emergnecy, and it requires even more of us.”
Regular fundraising is always underway, she said, but for Giving Tuesday, people can make donations quickly and easily to Kids Food Basket by texting KFB to 56651 and help keep the operation going.
“Many of our families are facing an extraordinary crisis right now, and are at a major lack of resources” she said. “So we are accountable to our community and we are working as hard as we can to respond.
So far, the chartiy has had to switch vendors, which provide fewer perishables, and different, but still healthful food choices, she said.
“Food is medicine, and everyone has the right to food,” she said.
Before the pandemic hit, Kids Food Basket operated with about 250 volunteers packing meals daily in three different locations, and others making deliveries to the four counties. Now, Kids Food Basket employees are doing much of the work, as efficiently as they can, undert the circumstances.
The only reason it works, Clark Whitney said, is “because of time, talent, offers to help — and the love and support of our donors.”
Kids Food Basket relies 100 percent on donations and has grown to a $7 million annual operation, of which $2.5 million comes in the form of volunteer hours and in-kind donations.
One of Clark Whitney’s favorite aspects are the donated lunch bags that are decorated by the donors with colorful pictures and uplifting words.
She said the donated paper bags are stored for a period of time to ensure they are completely free of any possible COVID-19 transmission.
