Today we’d like to introduce you to Adriane Gray.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Adriane. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
No Child Should Ever Go Hungry!
I was sitting in my Sunday School Class and we were discussing prayer in school. There were four other ladies in my small group who are teachers at local Title 1 schools. We got a little off topic and began discussing free/reduced lunch in schools. Those teachers were talking about the fact that they could tell which children went home to a good meal and those who didn’t. I was in total shock to learn that children in our community didn’t have enough to eat. I didn’t think Fort Bend County had children going hungry. I asked those teachers – if they knew some kids went home and didn’t have anything to eat, what were they doing over the long school breaks. They said they didn’t know. Their stories and facts weighed heavily on my heart. I went home and did some research and found out that this, in fact, was a very real problem many of our community children were facing. I went to my church and said, “here is the problem and here is a simple solution… we can pack sack lunches for our community kids and distribute.” The church agreed to host the project and we started with one local school. That was my goal – to help one local school put an end to childhood hunger. Once we started our process of packing and delivering lunches – I told our core team – “this is so easy and we are making such an impact, let’s continue touching lives and make more lunches. Let’s adopt another school. And so, we did… fast forward to 2018… we have adopted 17 Title 1 schools in LCISD and 3 in FBISD. We feed approximately 2,700 chronically hungry children on the weekends and over 4,000 children during extended school holidays. We are here to help fill the gap when kids are not in school (weekends and Monday-Friday during extended school holidays – spring break, summer, Thanksgiving break, and Christmas break). We filled for our non-profit status and became our own entity in 2012. We have grown by leaps and bounds in our 10 years.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The whole process has been fairly simple and easy… we are packing lunches (anyone and everyone can help with this… all ages). The program is very rewarding, too. I always knew we were going to be providing a service to help children who are living in food insecure homes but had no clue how much our volunteers would be impacted by our service.
We have made tweaks and improvement with our deliveries and how we sign our kids up, but the general program really has run like a well-oiled machine from day one. It takes a lot of organization and money to make our program work, but it is a simple process.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Lunches of Love – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Lunches of Love, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is committed to helping end childhood hunger in Fort Bend County by providing a free nutritious sack lunch during extended school holidays and weekends.
Kids who depend on a nutritious breakfast and lunch each day at school are suddenly left wondering where their next meal is coming from during extended school holidays and during the weekend.
With the help of our amazing and generous community, Lunches of Love is working hard to end the very real problem of childhood hunger in our community.
June 2015, Lunches of Love distributed our MILLIONTH free lunch to children living in food insecure households. July 2017, Lunches of Love distributed our TWO MILLIONTH free lunch to children living in food insecure households.
We are 100% volunteer based and driven with no paid staff. Volunteers are the backbone to our organization. Without them, we would not be who we are today.
During 2017, we had over 8,500 volunteers walk through our doors wanting to participate in a program where they could see the positive and direct impact they were making on their community.
Summer 2018, we calculated over 2,000 volunteer hours logged in by children and families who receive our LoL lunches. These kiddos want to help the program and community who are helping them.
Lunches of Love has created a more kind and caring community by giving our residents a place where all ages can make a difference, all ages can play a vital role in giving back, and all ages can understand what it means to share unconditional love.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
YES! We have just launched our capital campaign to raise funds for a HOME of our own. Lunches of Love has flourished and grown over the past ten years and First UMC Rosenberg has generously donated space for LoL to work out of, but we are now bursting at the seams. Due to an increase in supplies and equipment, we have actually had to lower the number of volunteers who can safely fit in our current space. This has sparked our NEED for a permanent home with a permanent footprint, so our program can continue to grow for our community’s children who are depending on this vital program. We have identified an unoccupied building in Rosenberg. It is very important to our Board of Directors and Building Committee to be a part of revitalizing the community we serve. We want to take an empty building a breathe new life and continue to make a difference in our community and the sweet innocent children we serve.
This process has definitely been a leap of faith for me, but I know this was the next step for Lunches of Love. We want to be able to continue to grow and be a positive impact. Our community kids count on Lunches of Love, many of them would go hungry without our program. We are changing the world – one lunch at a time.
Pricing:
- all it takes is $0.75 to make a lunch – every penny counts for LoL.
- $50 feeds one child the entire summer break (11 weeks)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lunchesoflove.net
- Phone: 832-586-6995
- Email: lunchesoflove@att.net
- Instagram: instagram.com/lunchesoflove
- Facebook: facebook.com/lunchesoflove
Image Credit:
van photo only- Caleb Rule
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