March 19, 2010 (FORT MYERS, FL) – At the recent Sam Galloway Jr. & Friends 7th Annual Soup Kitchen Benefit, Community Cooperative Ministries, Inc. (CCMI) launched their Do Something Twenty Ten campaign.
“With so many options available to help our neighbors and community in need, doing nothing is not an option,” said Sarah Owen, CEO of CCMI. “Do Something is our campaign to encourage everyone, young and old to take ownership in helping our community. Doing anything is better than doing nothing.”
CCMI is the umbrella agency for the Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, Senior Transportation, the Montessori Preschool of Dunbar and Social and Homeless Services.
During the Galloway event, volunteers wore “Do Something” t-shirts and aprons with the campaign logo displayed. Banners hanging throughout the dealership showed photographs and quotes from individuals and companies who have already done something in the community. A video was shown to attendees illustrating a variety of ways people are already helping and encouraging others to do so. The banners and video featured Wayne and Mavis Miller, the Junior League, Architecture, Inc., Carter Outdoor, Norman Love Confections, ABC7 anchor Len Jennings, Harry and Sandy Silverglide, FGCU’s Women’s Golf team, Saks Fifth Avenue, The News-Press, numerous volunteers and more.
At the conclusion of the event, stickers with “I did something for CCMI” were handed out to all who committed to “do something” over the next year.
“To think today in our community people are going to bed hungry; it’s unacceptable,” said Norman Love, owner of Norman Love Confections and a CCMI contributor. “When Mary and I opened our business in 2001, we made a commitment to give back to our community and we want to give so much back each and every day. Feeding the hungry in Lee County is one of our goals.”
“When the Junior League found out there were kids going hungry on the weekends last year, we were shocked and made a commitment to become involved,” said Julie Adams, Junior League member. “We’re very happy to be a part of something that is making a little bit of difference in our community.”
Junior League members stuff backpacks with nutritious snacks and food each Thursday at Heights Elementary in order for the packs to be send home with some xxx children each Friday during the school year.
Owen points out the campaign is not just aimed at securing monetary donations.
“Yes, money definitely helps a lot, but not everyone can afford to give money right now,” she said. “People have found creative ways to help from companies donating billboard space, architects giving us pro bono services to help transform our Soup Kitchen into an Everyday Café and Marketplace and even professionals mentoring our Montessori preschoolers.
The Soup Kitchen serves a noontime meal six days a week to men, women, and children. In addition, CCMI prepares and delivers nutritious packaged meals and beverages for the homebound hungry, offers a food pantry and mobile food pantries that provide emergency groceries to families in need, serves two nutritious meals a day for the children in their Montessori Preschool and oversees a backpack program for local schoolchildren who would otherwise receive little to no food on weekends. CCMI is a United Way agency. CCMI serves Fort Myers and the greater Lee County area, including Bonita Springs, Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres.
According to Owen, a growing number of those in need are the “new hungry” – individuals and families who have never had to ask for help before. They are former business owners, schoolteachers, volunteers and former donors to the organizations that they are now going to for help.
“The number of Lee County school children who are on free or reduced lunch is over 68%, a frightening indicator of the number of families who are struggling,” she said.
CCMI is refocusing their hunger-fighting efforts towards implementing a sustainable customer choice-centered model for long-term hunger elimination. This reexamination of the traditional soup kitchen setting is aimed at changing both the mind set of those who serve and those being served, as well as the physical spaces and delivery model created for the distribution of food. This concept has been adapted in other parts of the country including Colorado and Ohio with overwhelming success.
“Currently food is not easily available to working poor women, children and others who, research shows, are a larger portion of the hungry than the chronic or urban homeless,” Owen said. “There is a whole middle class portion of our community who are now food insecure but we are either not seeing them because of the stigma attached to the traditional soup kitchen or our services are not available where they can easily access them.”
CCMI’s Everyday Café concept will make food more easily available to everyone in the community who is hungry. The market model will also decrease the stigma associated with standing in line for a hot meal or groceries and reduce significant waste in the pre-selected grocery bag model.
Owen added the goal for the café is that whether someone is a CCMI client or a community resident, business owner or volunteer, everyday people will feel welcome to enjoy a healthy, delicious meal.
“We can and did make a difference,” said Sam Galloway, Jr. “When hunger affects our community it impacts every one of us in some way and if every one of us do a small part to impact change, change will happen.”
Additional information about the Do Something campaign, including video highlights, can be accessed by visiting http://www.ccmileecounty.com/dosomething.
“Our team will be videotaping those all over Southwest Florida over the next year and posting the videos on our site,” said Owen. “We believe with an innovative spirit, we can re-imagine the food distribution system in our community and wipe out hunger by 2015. Anyone and everyone in Southwest Florida can be part of the catalyst of change to wipe out hunger. CCMI can not do this alone—it will take a community-wide effort to accomplish this important task.”
