|
“Within the 419 area code
more than 340,000 people – 140,000 households – don’t know
if they are going to have food on the table at night,” said
Mistress of Ceremonies Barb Petee, chief advocacy and
government relations officer for ProMedica and a member of
the board of trustees for Connecting Kids to Meals. “What’s
worse is that we have about 30,000 kids who face hunger
daily,” she continued.
According to Rogers, the
move to combine forces began about 21 months ago as a result
of a conversation between himself and former Mayor Carty
Finkbeiner, who is chairman of the board of Connecting Kids
to Meals. The two were touring the former Macomber High
School building and realized that they both the same goal in
mind – the construction of a kitchen with far greater
capacity than either agency possessed at that time..
At that time the two men
“decided to join forces and operate together,” said Rogers.
Since then, he added, “tons and tons of folks have pitched
in so that [we could complete] the building under budget and
ahead of schedule.”
One of the critical pieces
of putting together the Life Revitalization Center was
raising funds for the nearly $3 million project. Finkbeiner
turned to State Sen. Randy Gardner for his assistance and
the Republican from Bowling Green brought home the bacon -
$1 million worth of bacon to be exact.
“I said ‘you do whatever
you think is best and right to serve the people in this
community and I will support you,’” recounted Gardner.
The Democratic former
mayor and the Republican representative began a bipartisan
effort to forge “basically a plan to feed more children –
but we are talking about not only about providing more meals
and also about education and job training,” said Gardner.
Pulling out a flag from
his pocket, Gardner said the kitchen will provide the
“freedom” and “independence” that the flag represents though
the center’s additional emphasis on job training and
education.
Toledo Mayor Paula
Hicks-Hudson agreed with Gardner’s reference to the freedom
the center will offer. “Freedom is really being able to not
be worried about your basic needs of food and shelter,” she
said.
The state-of-the art
kitchen will now be able to provide well over a million
meals a year between the two organizations – a significant
increase over previous capacities. One million meals will be
delivered to those in the community, a half million others
will be served in the dining area.
The importance of proper
nutrition was a theme that was repeated numerous times
during the opening. “If a child does not have decent
nutrition – and that starts in the womb – they will be slow
learners forever,” said U.S. Comgresswoman Marcy Kaptur as
she presented a plaque and flag to the two institutions.
“That’s how we end
hunger,” said Rogers of the services offered at the Life
Revitalization Center. “We end hunger by doing both
simultaneously – stabilizing a life through a nutritious
meal and then transforming a life through access and options
to education and through job readiness – and the job
itself.”
|
