A Letter To Our Community
Dear friends,
Our community is experiencing transformative levels of disruption and we at Toni’s Kitchen want to let you know what we are seeing here in our local area and how we are working to address these challenges.
In the first quarter of this year, we saw a 10% increase in families with children and seniors needing food support to meet their basic human needs. These are people we see in our daily lives – Uber drivers, retail workers, those caring for our aging parents, preschool teachers, medical support staff, gas station attendants – who come through our doors or to a neighborhood mobile market to be able to put healthy food on their tables.
Along with this increase, we also realized a 20% drop in food donated through government supported organizations. What does that look like? Approximately 4 pallets of food weekly or the equivalent of over 300,000 meals annually.
As we address this moment, we do so expecting further impacts from federal layoffs, stresses on small businesses, education cuts and displaced academics. When we add in inflation, tariff whiplash and the expected changes in consumer spending it can feel overwhelming. Many of our neighbors live just a couple of paychecks away from needing support. We saw this clearly during Covid. During that last crisis the Federal, State and Local governments – institutions created to ensure our collective welfare and security – rushed in to help. Today, we see parts of our government taking a very different role.
That leaves us asking, what do we, as a community, do? Who is there to help those most unable to weather this storm?
We, together as a community, are the answer to this moment. We don’t know everything coming our way but we do know that together we have the talent, the resources and the will to insist that everyone in our community has reliable access to healthy food.
In addition to our dining room program, Toni’s Kitchen has been able to build food security for almost 1400 families and seniors by doing the bulk of our work out in the community. We do this by making sure programs are reliably available and integrated into local neighborhoods, schools and gathering spaces. These solutions demonstrate that neighbors can become food secure even without solving all the challenges that give rise to food insecurity. We will continue to pursue neighborhood-based solutions even as the need grows.
As we move forward, we will reach out to you and keep you up-to-date on what we are seeing and how you can help. There is a role for each of us as we travel this uncharted path.
Together we must link arms, answer a call to care for one another, and tend to the most basic needs of our neighbors.
Right now what can you do?
– DONATE to keep us strong.
– VOLUNTEER your time and talent.
– REMEMBER our neighbors when you grocery shop or place an online order. Add a few items to your cart for them.
– GROW A ROW in your garden earmarked for struggling neighbors so you can bring us fresh produce all summer long.
With gratitude,
Anne Mernin
Executive Director
Toni’s Kitchen, a food ministry of St. Luke's Church