As we enter a new year, we’re looking back on 2022 with nothing but gratitude for what our community chose to accomplish, together. Your support as volunteers, food drive partners, financial supporters, cheerleaders, and advocates, made it possible for more neighbors than ever before to find the healthy food, belief, and partnership they needed to move forward. Thank you, for proving that we are a community where caring happens, second chances are creatively found, and where our neighbors experience unrelenting kindness and connection. 

In our first full year of service at the Food Club & Opportunity Hub, we saw the impact that streamlined access to healthy food, resource connection, and financial education can make for our guests:

• Over 880,000 meals worth of healthy groceries provided to over 7,000 low-income neighbors;

• 153 guests enrolled in intensive one-on-one financial counseling through our Financial Wellness program (twice the impact of previous years!); and

• 82% of Food Club guests report having better access to resources they need to make positive changes in their lives.

And our work and impact continued to grow outside of Food Club too! The Community Kitchen shared over 57,000 lovingly prepared meals with our guests, and we expanded our Outreach team, who helped a record-setting 86 formerly homeless neighbors find homes - huge homeless-to-housed success stories that we celebrate each and every time with our guests and partners. 

With your help, we’ll continue to serve as a critical network of support for those who need it most - walking alongside our neighbors as they move from crisis to stability, from despair to hope, and from facing impossible decisions to finding uplift and opportunity as they chart a path forward. As we step into 2023, we’re dreaming of (and planning!) bigger and better ways to ensure that no one in our community has to face challenges alone. We're glad you're here, grateful for your support, and excited to see what we can accomplish together in the year to come. Thank you for standing with us!

Onward,

Scott Rumpsa | CEO

Program Updates:

"This was the best Christmas present we could have ever imagined."

Financial Wellness

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Recently Ana, one of our Financial Wellness Counselors, received a call from Joel (name changed for privacy), a Foreclosure Intervention client who worked with Ana through the MIHAF (Michigan Homeowner Assistance Fund) application process. Joel and his wife expressed their gratitude for Ana’s help, and shared that her guidance and partnership took a huge weight off of their shoulders during a critical time. 

With their funding approved, Joel and his wife will be able to stay in their home! Joel shared with Ana that this was “the best Christmas present they could have ever imagined.” We’re overjoyed for Joel, and glad to celebrate alongside them this holiday season. Right now, we’re working with dozens of other families to address challenges, set goals, and achieve progress together, and every time there’s a clear win like this, we celebrate with our guests, and with our community!

Food Club

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Last month at Food Club, our team jumped into action when dangerous weather conditions impacted our open hours. With two days of unexpected closures from the soon-to-arrive blizzard, our team worked quickly to let guests know so that they could stock up on groceries. Text messages went out to every member to let them know of the changed schedule. Volunteers and our team restocked our shelves, time and time again, while efficiently moving guests through the checkout lines so they could get home safely with the food they needed for the weekend. 219 guests arrived on Thursday (12/22) alone to stock up with good food for the Christmas weekend before the storm.

We were so encouraged to see the hats, gloves, and other items that so many caring community members dropped off at Food Club as the weather grew colder. Some were shared with our Food Club families, and our Outreach team took many of these essential items over to our Refresh program site, to help keep our unhoused neighbors outdoors warm while they work with our team towards safe, stable housing.

Outreach

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As many in our community prepped for the holidays, our team prepared to support our unhoused neighbors through what would be a difficult, dangerous time. With days growing colder, and a blizzard looming before Christmas, many of our guests faced frostbite, illness, and even death living outdoors.

When Gateway Mission announced their Code Blue, our team worked diligently to ensure that as many people as possible were aware and able to move indoors. Working alongside our Logistics Team, they provided all of our recently housed neighbors with furniture in their new homes, ensuring that all had a bed before Christmas.

Community Kitchen

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The Community Kitchen was a busy place during the holidays, with sugar cookie decorating, a holiday bake off, and a visit from our Refresh partners at First United Methodist Church! They provided kits with household items, fresh baked goodies, and warm hats and gloves for our neighbors experiencing homelessness.

As we prepared organization-wide for unexpected closures and service adjustments due to the blizzard, the team at the Community Kitchen was grateful for FUMC’s extra support, and for the additional volunteers and staff that showed up to ensure our neighbors could find warmth, community, and a hot meal as the weather grew colder. 

In Case You Missed It! CAH News and Updates

Chick-fil-A names local True Inspiration Awards recipients - Grand Rapids Business Journal

Two West Michigan nonprofits were selected by Chick-fil-A to share in a $5 million grant pool. Chick-fil-A on Tuesday, Jan. 10, said it awarded Family Promise of Grand Rapids and Community Action House of Holland $150,000 collectively as 2023 True Inspiration Awards recipients.

ARPA funding bolsters Ottawa Food's efforts to rescue food for pantries.

More than 34,000 pounds of food was rescued from the Holland and Grand Haven Farmers Markets and donated to local food pantries the summer of 2022, thanks to efforts by Ottawa Food and Community Action House.

Community Action House Update Dec. 21

Community Action House Update Dec. 21 Scott Rumpsa, CEO of the Community Action House, talked about current activities and how non-profits are helping the community during a Dec. 21, 2022 appearance. Talk of the Town Talk of the Town began on 1450 WHTC in 1959.

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