Feed the Hope brings county together once again

JEFFERSON – A Whitney Houston song blasted over the loudspeakers in a building at the Ashtabula County Fairgrounds Sept. 4 in Jefferson.
“Don’t you wanna dance? Say you wanna dance!” her voice boomed throughout the cavernous space.
Though the people in the Expo Building were having fun, they were there for a different reason than dancing.
Instead, they were putting together meals for the ninth Feed the Hope event hosted by Country Neighbor (Ashtabula County Food Bank), with help from the Feed the Hope Steering Committee.
A total of 250,000 meals consisting of cinnamon apple oatmeal and tomato basil pasta were packed that morning, according to Country Neighbor Executive Director Barbara Klingensmith.
Since the program’s inception nine years ago, the total meals have now reached 1,916,948.
“It’s pretty awesome to know that that food was packaged and went to people who needed it,” she commented. She expected that next year, Feed the Hope will be able to go over its two-millionth meal.
Klingensmith said well over 500 people took part in the massive charitable effort this year as they got the food ready to be distributed to the food pantries in the county to be put in food boxes and given out to families experiencing food insecurity.
“They’re excited, you can hear it,” she said of the volunteers’ enthusiasm. She thought the mood was energetic.
In total, there were 30 teams, plus students from Grand Valley, Jefferson, Pymatuning Valley and Buckeye Local school districts and A-Tech as well as individuals.
“We have all age groups coming together for a common cause, and that’s very exciting for me and for the whole county,” she said. “And they’re all interacting together.”
She was impressed by the students’ involvement and their curiosity.
“I think that volunteerism is a part of their service, but I think bigger than that, there are students here who have participated for two years and they look forward to it,” she added. “They’re asking questions like, ‘where’s the food go? What are we doing? What’s the purpose?’ Who, how, when, where, what? They’re interested. They know they’re making a difference.”
One of the many students, Roman Wilson, poured a bag of soy into a box at one of the many tables where the meals were being packed.
Wilson, a member of the Grand Valley High School Football Team, was one of about 15 players lending a hand.
“It’s pretty fun,” he said. He liked giving back to the community.
R. Scott Wludyga, superintendent of A-Tech, said more than 30 students from A-Tech were participating, mostly from the carpentry program and also the student ambassadors who volunteer every year for the event.
“I think it’s a tremendous experience for our students to see how they can give back to our community in a meaningful way,” he said. “I think that the students enjoy contributing and working with the community members on a project like this, and I also think it helps them learn the importance of community service, and the impact that an organization like Country Neighbor has in our county.”
He noted that the students, as a whole, were divided into different teams – the suppliers, the shippers, the stackers and the “smashers.”
“The suppliers keep the table supplied with food to make the boxes,” he said. “The shippers take the completed boxes and move them to the front of the room, where the stackers stack the boxes onto the pallets to be put into the truck and then the smashers are smashing boxes to be put into the recycle bins outside and also helping with the trash.”
He said A-Tech has been involved since the beginning of the event.
One team consisted of about 12 members from Rotary Clubs in Conneaut, Geneva, Jefferson and Ashtabula. For five years, Rotary has taken part.
“I thought it would be a great service project for us to go in on,” LouAnn Wilkinson, the past president of the Ashtabula Rotary Club, said.
She noted that Feed Hope meshed with Rotary’s motto of “service above self.”
“So, it’s a great service project for all of us to be involved in, and it’s a great way to get to know each other,” she said, noting she actually delayed a vacation to take part.
John Patterson, who started the program, was happy with the way things were going for another successful year.
“We’ll go over 2 million (meals) next year,” he said.
He was impressed with the students taking part.
He said it was “rejuvenating and reinvigorating” to see young people working alongside their older counterparts.
“This brings the community together from all corners in the county to do something that benefits everybody,” he said.
Not only those getting the meals benefit, but those volunteering their time also reap the rewards, he pointed out.
“That’s the beauty of this,” he said. “Because sometimes the greatest gifts that we get are when we give of ourselves to others.”
He recalled the origins of Feed the Hope.
“I brought the idea back to Barb and others,” he said. “My wife and I had done this at a Leadership Conference. We did like 25,000 meals. And I thought, ‘oh my gosh, this would be wonderful to take back, bring the county together to do something that helps people and raises hope in all corners.”
After the ninth year, Patterson is pleased.
“It’s far exceeded my limited expectations,” he said. “To be honest with you, God’s got a hand in this. Every person who has helped has been so kind and caring and thinking of others first. It’s just a privilege. And it’s a humbling thing to be part of something that’s grown like this and is essentially an institution.”
Klingensmith acknowledged the support of the donors in making the program a reality.
“If it wasn’t for our sponsors, the donors, it wouldn’t happen,” she said. “We raise over $90,000 every year to make this happen. And it’s only because of their support.”