Seeing Success & Change: Keokuk
The Salvation Army is always creating new relationships within our communities across the Heartland Division. Just as Jesus called his followers to spread his word & love, so too do we bring our mission to life with your local help. These partnerships are so valuable to us because of how much positive change we accomplish through them. To see how impactful The Salvation Army can be with your local support we wanted to share a truly inspiring example that is happening every week in Lee County.
The Power Of Partnership
Our dedicated Salvation Army family in Keokuk have been hard at work with local partners to bring food to their local schools. It is a team effort that makes a world of difference to a child's growth and development.
“The community has responded to provide the manpower to make this program happen, and we are so pleased to be able to provide this service.”
-Auxiliary Captain Linda Faye Jones
The support that is helping make this happen comes from both large and small scale partners. The local Hy-Vee provides bags for the food and snacks, local volunteers and church members prepare the meals, and then the schools distributes them to their students. The Salvation Army is proud to be a part of this program by utilizing a specialized food programs grant to keep the cost of each day’s food at $4.35.
This collaboration has been happening around Keokuk since 2018. During this time, each student has received 6 meals and 2 weekend snacks, which has totaled to 42,000 meals and 14,000 snacks that The Salvation Army and its local partners have been able to provide.* This is not the only impressive part however, giving kids the gift of food helps foster better educational performance and personal growth too! We have seen this first hand through the youth that come to our Salvation Army programs and share their gratitude for these meals. Change like this is exciting and we can’t wait to see more local support help us create new opportunities and impacts throughout Lee County.
We thank everyone involved for making this and all of our services possible, because without their partnership The Salvation Army wouldn't be able to do the most good. To hear more about our successes make sure to follow us on Facebook & to support causes like this today, you can see ways to give.
*Update: As of February 2019, the program has provided 50,742 meals & 16,914 snacks to 366 children