Hope For The Hungry - is a non profit organization, aiming to meet the needs of the community by bringing good, whole and healthy foods to our neighbors. Hunger is a problem that we can solve with creative solutions that help to remove the barrier of cost of food - which builds faith in families, strength in community and creates opportunity for success. 

When we remove the pain of hunger from a family, we introduce a pathway to getting out of poverty. 

With their aid, we will be able to have the volunteers we need and the community support to make sure this fridge has the staying power we need to feed our neighbors.

The team at the NNN, Kathy Schuth, Jill Joachim, and André North have been amazing partners in this project.

With their aid, we've been able to get electricity updated for the NNN Community building so that we are able to install the Fridge in that location. 

This phenomenal foundation has a chapter in South Bend, ready and willing to support efforts they think are Awesome. We submitted our grant proposal in June 2022, and in November 2022 we were called to present our project.

Because of their belief in our project and their willingness to see hunger eradicated in an awesome way, they awarded us $1000! 

This money has gone to funding electrical work as well as purchasing the materials needed to build the shed. 

In the summer of 2022, Jackie went to Ben Futa at Botany to discuss the very concept of Community Fridges and how we might see one implemented in our Neighborhood. Through this business, we were able to make the connections we needed with the NNN board, as well as create a network of people that, upon hearing of the possibility of Mutual Aid efforts like this, volunteered to help. 

Botany has committed to having a booth for the Community Fridge at all events this year, so that we can keep our shelves stocked and our neighbors fed! 

EcoOwl is a business in our community seeking to lift up movements and projects that they believe in. 

As such, they donated 500 fliers to advertise our initial food drive. 

They've committed to helping us with signage for the Community Fridge and the shed that will house it!

Kathy and Mykale have been pivotal in helping to motivate, as well as levitate the voices of the community through action. In June of 2022, when Jackie walked into Brain Lair Books and happened to mention the concept of Community Fridges, Kathy and Mykale's ears perked up instantly. From that moment were on board to help. 

Mykale has been championing community fridges, mutual aid efforts, and seeing a better future for the neighborhood for years. They are a powerful voice in the community with respect to eradicating hunger and lifting all of us up in equality for all. Because of their help, we are going to finally do it!

Andrew Mick is a Carpenter in Michiana who heard Jackie's story of wanting to establish a Community Fridge in the neighborhood and saw an opportunity to help.  He volunteered his expertise and the talent of his team to build the shed. 

This business committed to providing their time on installation day to build the shed that houses the fridge and the cabinets for the Community Resource Shed!

Organizer of Feed a Friend South Bend. 

One night in June 2022, I was scrolling mindlessly through TikTok (as you do) when I came upon a novel idea to combat hunger. A fridge in Petersborough, Ontario, CA., was meeting the people at the location of hunger, by installing a fridge in the neighborhood that everyone had access to give and take from. 

After spending the next week immersing myself in all the literature that I could find on it. I set out to do what I could to bring it to our neighborhood. I knew that we had a very real need that could be met with this type of mutual aid, and I was committed to doing what I could to meet that need. 

Combatting hunger has always been top priority for me. I grew up in a household that was always paycheck to paycheck, and access to good, whole and healthy food was a first of the month thing. Food insecurity was a concept that I wouldn't be introduced to until almost 20 years later, when I joined a social work class during COVID and could put a name to a very real problem that impacted not only my formative years, but my community today. 

When I bought my house in 2021 in the NNN, I went through a rough several months where I was always short and food was the first and easiest thing to cut or skip since bills were more important and it was too shameful to admit that I didn't have enough money to make ends meet. 

Now that I have entered a time in my life where I can meet my own needs, I want to create the pathways to making sure no one in our community has to deal with hunger alone, ever again. With the goal of eradicating hunger entirely, I look forward to helping our neighbors and through that help, hopefully bring a lasting solution to the problem that I know we can solve.  

Co-Organizer of Feed a Friend South Bend. 

One Saturday morning in the summer of 2022, I was browsing at Botany in the NNN, when I heard Jackie pitching the idea of a community fridge to Kathy Schuth.  At that time, I was developing a unit on food justice for my French students at Saint Mary's College and trying to learn more about efforts at addressing food insecurity in South Bend.  Soon, Jackie and I were strategizing and grant-writing, motivated by the enthusiasm of our neighbors and the need we knew existed.

Growing up in rural North Carolina in a family with two working parents, I was lucky to always have my basic needs met and then some.  It was while living outside of the United States as an adult, that I realized what a difference it made to my own health to have regular, affordable access to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. This understanding deepened an ethical commitment to supporting efforts to heal hunger that also prioritize long-term health.

My own first real experience with food insecurity was after completing graduate school in Louisiana and finding myself temporarily unemployed.  That was when I learned how SNAP (sometimes referred to as food stamps) worked.  I learned that even with the full amount, it was hard to cover everything towards the end of the month.  I also learned that the grocery store in easy walking distance where I had been a regular for the past seven years refused to accept SNAP (a fact that they proudly announced in all-caps signs at the registers).  It was a powerful reminder that logistics, paperwork, gatekeeping, and shame can be obstacles to getting basic needs met.  

As an educator, I'm excited to continue learning how we can best address hunger in sustainable, culturally-responsive, health-supporting ways. My French students at Saint Mary's College have already been involved in generating ideas to support this project and will be actively involved in its upkeep in the 2023-2024 school year.