Winner Update: The Good News Community Kitchen

We use the money that we won at the last event to hire grant writers so that we can write large, very large federal grants and grants for foundations so that we can build our very own transition center. Phase 1 is going to incorporate temporary housing at which individuals who will stay with us temporarily will be in a transitional program. They’re going to learn personal finance, we’re going to have a case managers, we’re going to have nurses, mental health and substance abuse providers in staff or on staff, we’re going to have a workforce development center on the first floor, a computer lab; we have a counseling room, it’ll be two private rooms for the one on one sessions. We’ve found that group therapy for substance abuse was extremely effective. So we’ll have a group therapy room as well. Phase 2 is the veteran housing. I’m an army veteran and veteran homelessness is real. So, we decided to incorporate that into our mission and instead of having a temporary housing for our veterans, we’re going to provide permanent housing so it’s going to be like,  I want to say 10-12 units for individuals who will be referred to us through the Department of Veterans Affairs, in which they will also be a large part of this project. Phase 3 is our reception hall. For many of you who work with nonprofits, you know, when we raise funds, it costs money to make money. So you have to pay all of this money to get a facility, a venue. Well, we figured this will be not only a great way to save income, but also to make income. So for phase 3, we added a reception hall to it. I just wanted to put something in the community that is ours and will allow us to 100% accomplish our mission. So because of the money that we won from the last ImpactClub® event, we were able to bring on two grant writers who are working diligently and extremely. The return on investment is, it’s just amazing, I might say. Because of you all, we will build this facility. So if you want to volunteer, come on.

Mercedes Kirkland-Doyle
Fighting Against Hunger

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