Church-school partnership feeds hungry families
By Patte Smith; photos courtesy of Journey Church
Journey Church volunteers gather donated paper products and cleaning supplies and load them into vehicles to take to the Denver Street School.
In 2018, Denver Street School (DSS), located across three campuses in the Denver metro area, received a grant from Journey Church Legacy Fund. The school is an alternative high school that is fully accredited and serves at-risk youth. Over the years as the church has grown, Journey Church expanded their relationship with DSS.
The church congregation organized a much-needed food and necessities drive in April. “Many parents of DSS students lost their jobs in the first wave of closings and layoffs,” noted Cathy Schulze the missions director of Journey Church. “Cutbacks of public transportation had an immediate effect on the families who relied on it, making it hard to get to the grocery store.”
Journey Church donated two family-size meals that included eight servings per DSS student and staff member. “We purchased meals from a commercial kitchen that struggled to stay open and switched their direction by using their wholesale supply lines to create family-style meals and offer significant fundraising options for nonprofit organizations,” said Schulze. “The meals are delicious.”
The church was overwhelmed by the amount of paper products, personal products and cleaning supplies the “Journey family” provided. “We set up a drive-thru in the church parking lot for donors to drop off necessities, and for the entire scheduled two-hour period, cars kept coming with more and more. The lobby of the church was piled high with paper towels, toilet paper, giant jugs of Pine-Sol, Lysol and dish soap. A small team squeezed all of the donations into six SUVs for delivery,” Schulze exclaimed.
Members of Denver Street School receive refrigerated meals purchased by Journey Church for the families of the students. Many of the parents lost their jobs due to layoffs and closings.
Journey Church drivers met the DSS staff in a parking lot near downtown. The refrigerated van with meals from the commercial kitchen company also arrived with a team to distribute the food. The principals from two campuses and some DSS staff loaded up their cars and a school van with all of the supplies.
Acting Executive Director of DSS Chris Fuller commented that, “Watching God’s people do God’s work is one of the blessings of working at DSS. The lives of the hundreds of people that Journey touched will be impacted forever. God’s gospel seeds were planted in some, in others that seed has taken root, and for others, the gospel is growing!”
A DSS family member gratefully stated, “I would like to thank you for your kindness. During these times, helping one another is crucial. Hard times are upon us, but with your generosity, it makes it a little bit easier.”
For information about Journey Church, visit https://journeycolorado.com/. For information about Denver Street School, visit https://denverstreetschool.org/.
