Our world has changed over the past eight months in dramatic and challenging ways. The pandemic split us physically and ideologically and made election year tensions more divisive. The danger in retreating from society is that we can miss noticing the challenges of our neighbors and when we do see them, we’re too emotionally exhausted to find ways to help out!

Beginning last March, Lakewood Connects joined county-wide discussions with over fifty different organizations to build collaborative solutions for serious community food challenges. In September we were awarded a $30,000 grant to support construction of “Pantries” or “Hubs” at three Lakewood elementary schools. We’re excited to tell you this story in our next few newsletters!

Pantries/Hubs Goal? Build a sustainable network of school pantries at Lakewood elementary schools while merging district protocols with a vetted and trained support staff of community volunteers. The long range vision is to guide each “Pantry” into becoming a “Resource Hub” adding neighborhood leaders and community resources such as job enhancement, cooking classes, social emotional support, etc. A local pantry organized and staffed by neighbors and friends can remove barriers many in our world today face to realizing a thriving life.

On the 9^th of September, two local nonprofits, Benefits in Action and the JeffCo School Foundation, partnered with Lakewood Connects to apply for a city of Lakewood Cares Act Grant. After the grant was awarded, our Director Reg met with school administration, the principals of the three schools, their leadership teams and the directors of both partner nonprofits to develop the next steps to setting up these Pantries/Hubs over the next few months. Realizing this goal is would be impossible to achieve in the middle of a pandemic without the support of dozens of leaders from multiple organizations that have stepped up to make this breakthrough plan a reality!

What has happened so far? School district facility management has approved the project, all three schools set up their contact leader to lead Pantry/Hub development and, most importantly, each school has received $5,000 in grocery store gift cards! (More about this part of the story in our next blog and December newsletter!)

These last few months Lakewood Connects has been involved in building and supporting partnerships that will bring solutions for some of the most nagging and heartbreaking challenges our community has ever faced. Know that this Thanksgiving week hundreds of families are experiencing a time of gratitude and relief thanks to your support. We can’t do this without you!