This summer, we had the privilege of hosting an intern from Duke University who dedicated their time and energy to researching food pantries in the Englewood community. The result of their work is a comprehensive guide tailored specifically for KIPP Bloom families, filled with information on accessing local food resources. These ongoing initiatives reflect our dedication to not only providing quality education but also ensuring that our students and their families have access to essential resources, like nutritious food, to thrive both inside and outside the classroom.   

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One way we celebrate and elevate our community is by providing quality, freshly made holiday meals for our families. This December, we partnered with Chi Fresh Kitchen, who prepared 1,380 fresh holiday meals to distribute to KIPP Chicago families. The need for resources has grown, increasing from 1,064 meals last year, and we are happy that we were able to meet the need to ensure that families were provided and cared for. This effort would not be possible without the organization and commitment of our KIPP Chicago Operations and Regional Team of volunteers. Having all hands on deck during the event contributed to the overall success. 

Ribbon Cutting for KAC & RUSH Joint School-based Food Pantry 

KIPP Chicago and Rush University Medical Center partnered to establish a joint school-based food pantry to support our students in temporary living situations in the Austin neighborhood. On January 17th, we celebrated our official ribbon-cutting ceremony at our KIPP Academy Chicago and Rush food pantry. We are one box, one community!

The ribbon-cutting celebration is evidence of a successful collaboration between Rush and KIPP Chicago and how one part feeds the whole. The school-based food pantry originated from the vision of KIPP Chicago’s Executive Director, April Montgomery, whose own childhood experiences using food stamps led her to develop a deep passion for food insecurity, igniting the development of the Whole Child Initiative. Our mission of establishing a school-based food pantry has been in the works since 2020. In partnership with Rush, we began with quarterly pop-up food distributions for our community, surveyed our families for operational preferences, and engaged with Indeed for a community needs assessment. Thanks to the generosity of A Better Chicago, we received essential funding that enabled us to create a physical space at KIPP Academy Chicago, ensuring the predictable and consistent delivery of quality foods and smooth day-to-day operations. We currently serve 25 households per week, with family sizes between two and eight people. The school-based pantry removes transportation and financial barriers and offers a mix of shelf-stable items and fresh produce from TopBox. We hope that consistent access to quality food increases students’ learning and improves the quality of life for families. 

In addition to the food, we want to ensure families have the necessary resources for their households. This summer, we will begin offering wrap-around services for those who need food access from our pantry. We will use NowPow to connect households to SNAP benefits, employment, healthcare, and other life essentials. 

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In 2018, we committed to removing barriers to food access for our students by setting a goal of having a school-based food pantry at each of our schools. In partnership with Rush University Medical center and funding through A Better Chicago, we launched our pilot pantry in KIPP Academy Chicago (Austin) middle school, May through June of 2022.

During that time of operation, we determined service efficiencies, logistics and delivery, best practices for communication, and the types of foods families desired. Our results were consistent. We served 100 households for four weeks. The food options included fresh fruits and produce frozen proteins and shelf-stable items. Each family received enough food to support their households for approximately 1.5 weeks (for a family of four). In cases where more than four individuals were in a home, we provided two boxes and two bags of food. 

Beginning October 24th, we will reopen our pantry doors and offer quality foods and consistent services for our families. We are also planning a fun-filled ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the establishment of the school-based food pantry.

KIPP One Orr and Rush Joint Food Pantry 

Keeping in our commitment to school-based food access for our students and families, we are collaborating with Rush University Medical Center, Orr High School and KIPP One campuses to establish a school-based pantry. The pantry will be an extension of our blossoming and robust relationship with Rush. The opening date is to be determined. We are thrilled to have food access for three of our eight campuses and are continuing to make strides toward 100% of our campuses having onsite access to quality food. Great things to come.

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In order to support our food pantry efforts, we set up our CMASJ Food for Thought exhibit at ASU+GSV this year in order to engage with an audience around the topic of food justice and raise funds for the pantry operation. We were able to secure generous donations and make connections with other educators and not-for-profit leaders doing work around food justice!

KIPP Academy Chicago Food Pantry

Our school-based food pantry is slated to open May of 2022 at KIPP Academy Chicago. The pantry will launch as a pilot aimed at supporting 50 families per week during May and June, scaling to operate the full school year beginning this fall. The pantry is in partnership with Rush University Medical Center’s Office of Community Health Equity and Engagement. Our goal is to ensure we are addressing health and wellness with a combination of shelf stable food and fresh produce, meat, fish, and eggs.

KIPP One food distribution

On March 1st, with the help and generous support of Lakeshore Beverage, KIPP One was able to distribute 30 boxes of shelf-stable food items to families with a need.

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Our Winter Warm Up event allowed us to partner with ChiFresh Kitchen to serve 1,064 freshly cooked meals at each campus. ChiFresh Kitchen is part of a collaboration of urban farms, food operators, worker centers, policy advocates, and other community organizations led by people of color on the South and West Sides of Chicago, who are coming together to promote food sovereignty, racial justice, and equitable food access in the city. They currently operate out of The Hatchery, a food incubator located in Garfield Park on Chicago’s West Side.

A Better Chicago

Thank you to A Better Chicago for the generous grant for our food justice efforts. This will help us ensure we are able to launch our first food pantry at KIPP Academy Chicago this coming spring.

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We are projecting a Spring opening for our KIPP Academy Chicago food pantry. We are currently surveying families with Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS) to gauge needs and we know the Austin neighborhood is particularly in need of nutritious, convenient food options. This pantry will be in partnership with RUSH and Indeed.

Extra gratitude for Tonya Jefferson

To extend extra gratitude to foodservice providers, Stephanie Morimoto, owner of Asutra, brought some self-care gifts for Tonya Jefferson of KIPP Bloom College Prep. We are beyond grateful for all of our foodservice providers for working extra hard to make and distribute breakfast and lunch each day to our students!

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January 29th regional community circle with Ayinde Cartman

Our first community circle of the year, Poetry for Progress was curated around elevating the Whole Child Initiative and served as our regional kick-off to Black History Month. This virtual circle, featuring Chicago poet and organizer, Ayinde Cartman, focused on our priority of food justice, and invited collective reflection on our vision for organizational impact through poetry, conversation, and joy. Inspired by what we all love most about being together and fueled by the input and perspectives of our many staff members, this time together was a place for meaningful conversation, inclusion, authenticity, and truth.

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We’re thrilled to continue our partnerships with Native Tongue Magazine, a free food magazine that promotes food literacy through tailored recipes, cooking techniques, and educational content. This past fall, they contributed free bags of groceries with recipe cards to families at two KIPP Chicago events, one on September 5th and another on October 21st. They also led a Wellness Wednesday Workshop for teachers, demonstrating a 15 minute, family friendly meal with lots of advice to get kids involved in the process!

December 21st Rush food giveaway

On the first day of Winter Break, we partnered Rush Hospital’s Office of Community Health Equity and Engagement to host a Holiday food giveaway at the KIPP Academy campus. 200 boxes were filled with fresh and shelf-stable foods for families to safely pick up.

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From the time school buildings closed in March and through the summer, KIPP Chicago partnered with Gourmet Gorilla, a food distribution company that strives to obtain 70% of its ingredients from local, sustainable, and organic purveyors, to provide meals for all students across the region. Over that period of time, families received 10 days of breakfast and lunch per each school age child in the household every 2 weeks. In total, 2,000 healthy meals were delivered to KIPP Chicago families. The delivery process was safe and efficient and we’re so grateful for the continued support and service from Gourmet Gorilla. As CPS will continue food distribution for students and families this fall, our partnership with Gourmet Gorilla will not continue.

Native Tongue + KIPP Academy Chicago

Native Tongue Magazine is a free food magazine that promotes food literacy through tailored recipes, cooking techniques, and educational content (more on Native Tongue below under ‘Resources’). We were excited to see the duo behind Native Tongue, Karen and Archie Reyes, team up with KIPP Academy Chicago (KAC) and Girls are p.e.a.r.l.s, an organization run by KAC 7th grade teacher, Sameka Gates, to host a Back-to-School Giveaway on September 2nd and September 5th. The outdoor event featured voter registration, a produce giveaway, free COVID testing, free tacos from Taco Sublime, and more. We are continuing our partnership with Native Tongue and we look forward to the myriad ways we can work together to support food education, literacy, and access for our students and families.

Resources

Native Tongue Magazine is a free food magazine that promotes food literacy through tailored recipes, cooking techniques, and educational content. Food literacy is understanding the framework of food and the many details that come with it: How should we cook food? Who sells healthy food? Where does my food come from? What are healthy foods? Native Tongue helps educate the community by providing valuable information about healthy eating, showcasing delicious recipes that feature affordable and accessible foods, and spotlighting community heroes and organizations making a difference through food.

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These cross-stitch hearts were created by the 5th graders at KIPP Ascend Middle School last year as part of our Heart Felt and Sew Kind art show. They are still used to this day when sending gratitude to community partners or others who are working to make a difference. To our KIPP essential employees, we are so grateful for you!

KIPP Bloom has been consistently supporting the nutritional needs of their families. As we are planning to expand the capacity of the Bloom pantry, our community partnerships are equally important to meet the nutritional needs of families. Our most recent partnership is with the K.L.E.O. (Keep Loving Each Other) Center. K.L.E.O. (in partnership with University of Chicago) offers a monthly food pantry event that also services community health needs. The day of the event offers creative performances by local artists, diabetes testing for families, healthy food instruction and recipes and raffles. The event is open to the public and free. Find the monthly calendar here.

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