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Early this week, Feed
Lucas County Children, an organization which provides meals
to school children, and Cherry Street Mission Ministries,
which houses and feeds the area’s homeless population,
announced that progress continues on their new 24-hour
kitchen and that Democratic State Sen. Edna Brown and
Republican Sen. Randy Gardner had acquired the state grant
to help continue that progress.
The kitchen that will
serve both agencies’ clients will be housed inside the
former Macomber Vocational High School and will be up and
running, it is estimated, by mid November, said Dan Rogers,
president and CEO of Cherry Street Mission Ministries.
The 17,000 square-foot
kitchen and the 300-seat dining area will be in the space
that had housed the school’s aviation department. It will be
open 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Adults and children
will be able to eat together.
During a press conference
on Monday, former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, board chairman of
Feed Lucas County Children, praised the work of the agencies
in their new-found ability to work together. The agencies
had been separately planning kitchen projects, said Rogers,
which would have cost a total of $5.2 million. This
dual-purpose kitchen will cost less than half that amount.
The partnership began
about eight months ago. Mercy Health has contributed
$100,000; the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority will
contribute $35,000; Owens Corning Foundation has contributed
$100,000 to the Life Revitalization Center for job training.
The agencies need to raise
another $1.2 million to complete financing.
Brown and Gardner pointed
to their joint effort as an example of what can be
accomplished when party politics are put aside. “Turf
battles belong on the football field and not in the fight to
end hunger,” said Gardner.
Toledo Mayor Paula
Hicks-Hudson said that the city’s six pools will be
distribution centers for Feed Lucas County Children this
summer. The agency typically serves about 4,000 meals per
day during the summer and 1,000 meals plus snacks during the
school year. The new kitchen will serve about 1.5 million
meals during its first year, said Rogers.
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