What a difficult summer, in so many ways, that has just come to an end!
The leaves have barely started to change yet Fall is coming.
As you know, in mid-June, as the pandemic entered a lull in Michigan, in consultation with our healthcare partners, we decided to pause our full speed ahead operations and prepare to be ready for a second wave, should one materialize.
We hope that you have kept healthy and safe throughout the summer months and that back to school season has been good for you and your family.
There are two quick updates to share.
First, an incredible honor for all of us at Feed the Fight Kalamazoo, volunteers and donors alike. We are to be given an award by the Family Health Center (FHC) as one of their ‘Healthcare Heroes’ at a Virtual Gala on Tuesday, October 20th, 4-5 pm. You can sign up to attend here. And you can share the event with all of your friends on Facebook here. The event is free and has incredible hosts and local artists participating!
WE RISE 2020, with Family Health Center in Kalamazoo, is a virtual gathering to celebrate our community rising to meet the challenges of 2020!
In making us aware of the award, Denise Crawford, CEO of the FHC wrote, in part:
“With very little known at the time about how the virus spread, Feed the Fight volunteers unhesitatingly threw yourselves into the fray to bring hope to those on the front lines seeking to provide healthcare for our community. The meals you brought [FHC] staff sustained them in body and soul throughout the chaotic early days of the pandemic when so much was uncertain in the world. Your work played a sustaining role in FHC’s ability to live out its mission “to ensure all members of our community have access to quality, comprehensive, patient-centered health care” …even in the face of a totally novel coronavirus pandemic.”
Our all-volunteer group is so powerful. Thank you all so much for your dedication and desire to make a direct difference in helping our community fight through COVID-19. This award recognizes all of us, volunteers and donors, supporting our community in crisis. Also being honored as Healthcare Heroes are Dr. Rebecca Busk-Sutton, a practitioner at Family Health Center, and Dr. Parth Amin a Vascular Surgeon with Bronson Hospital. Congratulations!
Our second update is that, with Western Michigan University reopening and the testing effort underway at Sindecuse Health Center, we made our first delivery to their staff yesterday. You can see a great interview with Bomba’s Shack in Lawton (prepared the meals) in our facebook feed at this link.
We plan also to deliver to staff in the WMU isolation dorms in the coming days.
In short, we are so proud of our volunteer network and its real, felt impact. We are thrilled that our deliveries to the Family Health Center truly uplifted their staff, and we are ready, together with you, to continue to support our community as the second wave begins to rear its head in Michigan.
Please consider making a gift to continue supporting us, and please be in touch if you are ready to jump back into volunteering this Fall.
