Shoes 4 the Shoeless is a local nonprofit that’s usually out there making sure that kids who need shoes get a pair. But now that the coronavirus has changed so many things, they turned their attention to making sure everyone in the community gets enough to eat.
Kris Horlacher is standing in First Baptist Church in Kettering, looking at hundreds of boxes of food. Her team will spend the day distributing those boxes to hungry families.
“Each box has enough meals for three weeks. I’m looking at 2,100 meals. The drivers aren’t here yet, so right now it’s organizing—organizing and getting ready,” she says, and then she laughs at just how much organizing she has to do.
Kris is the executive director of Shoes 4 the Shoeless.
As the coronavirus outbreak began, she realized the kids she normally reaches, who desperately need shoes, are probably in need of meals now—meals they might normally get at school. And those kids and their families probably wouldn’t have any way to get to a food distribution center.
That’s when she started asking for food donations and delivery drivers. Now, churches across the Miami Valley are getting involved. They’ve pooled their resources, and they’re delivering to the elderly, the disabled, and just about anyone in need
“What’s happening where I am today is happening at Living Word Church, Southbrooke, Fairhaven,” she says. “They are being brought food by their partner churches. It is a mass gathering to feed thousands and thousands of vulnerable people that are falling through the cracks.”
Food 4 the People has also set up a volunteer telephone tree. Every day, volunteers make calls to seniors, the homebound, and other people who live alone.