BRIDGMAN — As the pandemic has begun to fade, rising prices have driven working families back to food banks. In the midst of the holidays, Southwest Michigan charitable organizations and food pantries have also had to navigate the changes that have come with inflation. Different delivery methods, alternative hours, a lack of produce variety and a growing need for volunteers are among the challenges local food pantries face as 2022 draws to a close. The Caring Cupboard at the Woodland Shores Baptist Church in Bridgman has seen an increase in food donations as of late. This was, in part, because of three recent food drives organized by Stewart and Roosevelt elementary schools. Heidi Southard, volunteer at the Caring Cupboard, said inflation has still made it difficult for the Bridgman pantry. “Just in purchasing food, inflation has caused our costs to have gone up about $400 a month,” she said. Southard said they adjusted their model at the start of the pandemic. Now they are looking at similar practices to combat inflation. Prior to the pandemic, Caring Cupboard was helping nine to 14 families a week through its indoor pantry. Post-pandemic, they changed how they deliver food and are now helping 26-30 families on a weekly basis. In the new format, the pantry hosts an event every weekend where patrons can preorder what’s needed. Volunteers pack the orders, allowing people to drive up and collect their food. “As soon as the world shut down, I realized I needed to make changes to make it safe and comfortable for the people we helped – as well as our volunteers,” Southard said. “We keep refining the process and getting better at it.” A strained supply chainThroughout any given year, food donations account for 15-20 percent of what Caring Cupboard hands out. The rest primarily comes from Feeding America. “In the last five to six months, we’ve seen an increasing need to purchase food from local stores,” Southard said. “Feeding America is experiencing a change in how stores are giving them their excess food.” Stores nationwide are finding new ways to manage their supply chain and sell food, which has led to less excess. These moves have since trickled down to other organizations. During the pandemic, donations to Feeding America peaked in the millions. One of the biggest contributors was the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has produced fewer offerings since inflation grew in 2022. “It’s not as consistent now. The supply chain was different when restaurants were closed,” Southard said. “The USDA was purchasing more food to support growers and agriculture. Things are returning to normal, but with a different supply chain, and people learned a lot.” This year, Caring Cupboard has had fewer cash donations. Since food prices have gone up so much, Southard has made some cuts. When it comes to food requests, Caring Cupboard seeks items that are not as available. Among these, as of late, has been canned fruit and vegetables. “We look for those side dishes, not rice so much, but Stove Top stuffing and Rice-a-Roni that stretch a meal,” Southard said. “Right now the food drives have helped with snack food.” The biggest challenge for food drives is the variety of food that is available. Over a winter break, Caring Cupboard patrons seek more breakfast foods and snacks, since children are home from school. Finding helpDavid Heyn, director of Harbor Country Mission, said they don’t stock food for the public. However, his organization does volunteer with local food distribution mobile pantries. “We take in clothing, pots and pans, bedding and furniture and give it away for free for the families who need it,” he said. Heyn said they recently applied for opening a pantry of their own with Feeding America. Until then, he said they will continue to offer pans, small appliances and any other equipment needed for preparing a meal. “We’re here to help,” Heyn said. “Open seven days a week.” The Caring Cupboard occasionally works with the Food Pantry and Thrift Store in Three Oaks. The director there sometimes has extra food and shares with the Bridgman operation. Merry Stover, executive director of the Soup Kitchen in Benton Harbor, said there have been a lot of donations in December. “We have some corporate donors that always make large donations in September. We get lucky sometimes,” she said. “You never know what’s coming your way when it comes to food donations.” The biggest challenge the Soup Kitchen has seen is the decrease in volunteers who haven’t returned since 2020. “The pandemic has had the largest affect here. It was interesting to me that the pandemic stirred dollar donations because people couldn’t do anything else. We couldn’t gather and make the food here,” Stover said. “Feeding people everyday, we’re good at that. Predicting trends, not so much.” Stewart Elementary School teacher Ashley Norris and a group of students pack boxes of donated materials Wednesday outside the school during one of its food drives. The donations went to the Caring Cupboard at the Woodland Shores Baptist Church in Bridgman.
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - Freedom isn’t free, but on Friday, a Michigan school was serving Veterans free lunch.
Students from Stewart Elementary School in Stevensville were asked to invite friends and family, who are former or active military, to come to eat lunch with them. Over 50 Veterans joined Stewart Elementary students for lunch today. Among them were two 98-year-old World War II Veterans. “At my age, that’s history! You know, I don’t even think about it, said WWII Veteran Bill Wall (Navy) when asked about his service. “It’s just; it was a time in life. I enjoyed it. A good experience. It was just something that just happened. I guess I enjoyed it.” His great-grandson said, “It just feels really cool to be able to say I have a 98-year-old grandpa who served in World War II.” This is the second time the school has held its Veterans Day Luncheon and the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. The school started the event because they wanted a clever way to engage the community while teaching students the value of Veterans Day. “It really great to see all the veterans in and see excited the kids were to see their veterans,” said Stewart Elementary School Veterans Day Lunch Chair Jenn Wall. “It was really awesome to not only have guests back in the school but the veterans, to honor them.” Also among the veterans was US Army Colonel Donald Alsbro, who served two tours in Vietnam. He is also the co-founder of Lest We Forget, an organization that educates people about our local military veterans. “We do this so service men and women are not forgotten,” said Col. Donald Alsbro. “We hold reenactments and create videos to reach young kids about the military.” In attendance, there were veterans from WWII up to active duty, which is 80+ years of consecutive service. The total number of service years between the attending Veterans would stretch many lifetimes, all the more reason to thank a veteran for their service and sacrifice for our great country, or invite them to lunch. Home Sweet Home sponsored the event. The in-home-care provider works closely with The VA to help care for hundreds of veterans every month. Biggby Coffee provided beverages for the event, and Drive-By Designs made the signs. His great-grandson said, “It just feels really cool to be able to say I have a 98-year-old grandpa who served in World War II.” This is the second time the school has held its Veterans Day Luncheon and the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. The school started the event because they wanted a clever way to engage the community while teaching students the value of Veterans Day. “It really great to see all the veterans in and see excited the kids were to see their veterans,” said Stewart Elementary School Veterans Day Lunch Chair Jenn Wall. “It was really awesome to not only have guests back in the school but the veterans, to honor them.” His great-grandson said, “It just feels really cool to be able to say I have a 98-year-old grandpa who served in World War II.” This is the second time the school has held its Veterans Day Luncheon and the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. The school started the event because they wanted a clever way to engage the community while teaching students the value of Veterans Day. “It really great to see all the veterans in and see excited the kids were to see their veterans,” said Stewart Elementary School Veterans Day Lunch Chair Jenn Wall. “It was really awesome to not only have guests back in the school but the veterans, to honor them.” Lunch time is a time for students to relax. But for one group of kids, today was a special lesson.
Stewart Elementary in Stevensville held a free spaghetti lunch for veterans. Many of the vets have children or grandchildren at the school, which for some might have been just a fun day having family join them for lunch. But for the school it was a learning lesson, and for the veterans a small token of appreciation. There was a standing ovation for the men and women. “Just really great. You can't put in in words. It comes out in tears,” said William Wall, WWII Navy veteran. Wall cherishes lunch with his grandson, but also the appreciation. "Now, at 95, I look back on it and it was something to be proud of.” Throughout the tables, parents and grandparents spent the day with their little ones. Veteran Steven Phenegar was blown away. “To come in and have lunch with my daughter is amazing. I didn’t know things like this existed.” A family full of veterans, Thais Taylor isn't sure her grandson fully grasps the significance. “He loves us, but he will be proud of us too once he understands what we have actually done or do for this country.” That's why principal Samantha Berglan organized the lunch. Fourth-graders have been learning about the military branches and Veteran's Day, but this brings it beyond books. “It was really cool to see them in uniform,” said Berglan. “Sometime our kids never have the opportunity to see servicemen or servicewomen in their uniforms.” Phenegar says his daughter started catching on. “She started recognizing that other people were taking notice and it made her stop and think, instead of taking for granted why these people are paying attention to her dad.” But it was one special moment that summed it all up. Noah Compton, age 8, asking two veterans for their autograph. “My dad’s dad was in WW2, so that’s why I just really wanted to get their signature,” he said. His grandfather has since passed, but he knew he wanted to keep this memory. “That would be like once in a lifetime to do it, so that’s why I did it.” The veterans not only thanked the kids but the teachers who gave them the opportunity. Phenegar appreciates restaurants that give discounts on Veteran's Day, but says this event provides a personal touch worth so much more. STEVENSVILLE — Stewart Elementary School students were busy this week making holiday cards for veterans in Nancy Anderson’s art class.
When she asked a fifth-grade class how many of them knew somebody who had served, or was serving, in the military, almost every student raised their hands. Anderson said the goal is to make at least 800 cards to be sent to local veterans and active military who can’t be home for the holidays. Principal Samantha Lantis said the project is intended to help the students celebrate Veterans Day, which is Thursday. The school held what was intended to be the first annual Veterans Day Community Lunch in November 2019. Then, Lantis said the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the school has been unable to invite veterans into the school building. She said they hope to start having lunches with veterans in the future. “We offered them a free lunch. A lot of them also wore their (military) jackets or medals,” she said. “It was really cool. The kids sat with the veterans during lunchtime and got to talk with them a little bit about why they’re here and what they did. It helped the kids understand not only what Veterans Day is, but to see veterans in real life and to have an experience with them.” Lantis said a parent volunteer came up with the idea to make the holiday cards. She said their cards will be sent to military people overseas who haven’t received anything over the holidays. In addition, Lantis said they are collecting names of local veterans who will receive a card. STEVENSVILLE, Mich. (WNDU) - Books are a big part of the day at Stewart Elementary in Stevensville, Michigan. The school just won a Martin’s Super Markets One School at a Time $1,000 grant. The money will be used to help boost reading initiatives at the school.
“I really like to read funny books or adventures,” said Leah Fisher, Stewart Elementary 5th grader. “I get to read to my brothers and to myself. If I just need to get away from the world sometimes.” “Sometimes I just go up to my room and I can sit down and I start reading and it takes everything from my mind and I love it,” said Avery McLeod, Stewart Elementary 5th grader. This school promotes reading in all sorts of ways including comfy reading corners and a fully stocked library. “Reading is a big initiative that we’ve had here over the last three years,” said Stewart Elementary Principal Samantha Lantis. Lantis and other school officials hope to add a book vending machine to give kids an added incentive. The Martin’s Super Markets’ One School at a Time grant will really help. “The money will go toward books. And hopefully we get a lot of input from students, on the books that they’re enjoying right now, and the books that they would like to read,” said Lantis. “So they can help me stock the machine. And the teachers can help us stock the machine.” School counselor Dayna Galloway says they hope to use the vending machine to positive behaviors. “When they show those behaviors, they can earn a token. And that token will be used to get a book of their choice,” said Galloway. Avery knows what she’ll be looking for. “I love fantasies,” said Avery. “One book like series that I really love right now is the ‘Land of Stories.’ It’s one of my favorite books.” Click here for the link to nominate your school for a One School at a Time grant from Martin’s Super Markets. Copyright 2021 WNDU. All rights reserved.
What is Art in the Office?
Groups of students get to decorate the office with the principal, Mrs. Gourlay and myself. We usually have 10 kids in here. If you look around, you can see the snowflakes they made in December. We all sit on the floor in here and decorate. The kids – they just love it. Just being able to hang out with the principal, Mrs. Gourlay and I. We played Christmas music and we just had a really fun time. We do 10 from each grade level. It is the same with Goodies with Gourlay and McDonald’s with McGovern, except only one name is drawn. We had one little girl who wanted Dairy Queen and she put all of her tickets in with Mrs. Gourlay and she ended up winning. Mrs. Gourlay will go to McDonald’s and Dairy Queen and we’ll have it here in the office because we can’t take them out for liability reasons. The two kids that won will come in here and we’ll sit around and get to know the kids and just talk and have fun. We really enjoy doing that. What makes you tick? I enjoy making people happy. I’ve worked in customer service my whole life. I was a military charter flight attendant for many years. I enjoy talking with people and that makes me happy. I like to be around parents and find out how they feel about the school and how their kids are doing. What is a military charter flight attendant? I started back in 1995. It was an airline based out of Indianapolis. We had a contract with the military where we would fly military families and military personnel to their bases or wherever they needed us to go. What was your most memorable flight? I was actually on a flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to New York when 9/11 happened. We got diverted. You know that play, (“Come From Away”)? We were mentioned in that play. That’s where lots of flights got diverted to Nova Scotia. They weren’t allowed to land in New York. The pilot came on and said we were getting diverted and we’d have more information once we landed. When we landed, there were 50 to 100 planes there. When we were landing, we could see all the planes that had come in before us. It was amazing. You could see planes in the grass. At that point, we knew something was going on. We ended up being there for a week. Where did you stay? We ended up staying on the military base. A lot of families opened up their homes and brought in homemade meals. It was comforting to know that we were safe. The people were just amazing. At Stewart Elementary School in Stevensville, PRIDE is an acronym that stands for five traits – Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Empathy.
The Stewart Family Synergy Teams, represented by six 5th graders and eight faculty members Monday at the Lakeshore School Board meeting, presented to board members what they’ve learned about PRIDE, initiatives the teams have started, and even the challenges of demonstrating all aspects of PRIDE. While Lantis said the PRIDE concept has been around for a few years, a new concept this year is the POP [Points of PRIDE] store. By demonstrating one of the elements of PRIDE, students can earn POP tickets and use them to purchase fun prizes and other bigger treats like McDonalds or Dairy Queen. “It’s a constant reminder of the behaviors that we want to see, not only from our students, but from our staff members as well,” said Stewart Principal Samantha Lantis, of the Synergy teams and PRIDE concept. “It’s really cool to see the students and to see our staff members take on such great leadership opportunities. The Synergy teams are truly leading the initiatives that you see. This is not led by the building principal. It’s led by what they see as a priority, which is really cool.” During the meeting, students explained in more detail what PRIDE means. Student presentation Representing the Student Synergy Team were Sakti Patel, Ethan Ankli, Vivaan Devlekar, Sahith Kona and Morgan Hughes. Each student took their turn telling the board more about the team and its initiatives. “Our role in Stewart is to make PRIDE more visible for students,” Hughes said. “We show our school and community that doing the right thing matters.” One of the student-led initiatives is the creation of their own video announcements to limit interruptions throughout the school day. They also ran a coat drive, Halloween costume drive, Caring Cupboard food drive and Thanksgiving feast give back to help students and families in need. According to Devlekar, the Synergy teams created a system of “shoutout slips” where students can recognize other students. The shoutouts are featured on the student announcements. “Student Synergy helps me help others,” said Ankli. “Then, that will make other people want to help even more people.” During the meeting, the students handed out POP tickets to board and audience members who displayed elements of PRIDE, and showed the board how the store works. Accompanying the students were the teacher and faculty Synergy team, represented by Lantis, 2nd grade teacher Karen Keesler, counselor Dayna Galloway, kindergarten teacher Jillian Crockett, 5th grade teacher Meredith Lane, paraprofessional Ashley Norris, 4th grade teacher Tessa Lee and Paraprofessional Connie Gunkel. Most of the staff expressed how the Synergy teams helped them feel a closer connection to both students and staff. PRIDE Board member Rachel Wade posed a two-part question to each student: Of the elements of PRIDE, which are the easiest and hardest to display? “The easiest for me is respect,” Devlekar said. “I don’t normally see people going around messing up the school. Then the hardest for me is probably perseverance, because … I always get into really tough situations where I can’t do anything, and my brain is dead. Like a Monday test – I can’t do anything, but I just have to power through.” Patel said the easiest for her to display was empathy. “I don’t really want to hurt the people next to me,” she said, gesturing toward classmates. “Then perseverance is kind of hard because if you’re doing something like the PACER test, you can tire really easily if you’re not pacing yourself. … You just have to keep going until your legs give out.” Most of the other students picked integrity as the easiest to display. “When a teacher walks out of the room, I’m not going to go throw my book across the room,” Kona said. Hughes said students shouldn’t change their behavior based on who is there and who isn’t, and Ankli agreed. “I gotta agree with Sahith and Morgan on that one,” he said. “It’s not like when the teacher is out of the room, it’s not like it’s a war … and then also perseverance is definitely the hardest, because if you get mad at something you might like want to throw whatever you’re holding.” Board members expressed their amazement at how well-spoken the students were in their presentation. “I just wanted to add how impressive it is to me that at this age, there were no nerves,” he said. “Future leaders amongst the school there. When we all retire, you guys can come on up here. You’re already ready.” By Ryan Yuenger [email protected] |