Fuel for Flight, a new organization in Milford, is packing weekend food bags this summer to make sure students don't go hungry during the upcoming school year.
The effort is a partnership with First United Methodist Church.
Kenneth Stewart, lead pastor at Milford First United Methodist Church, said the effort began with a simple but urgent conversation.
"A wonderful person approached me and said we can't let kids go hungry in our community, and as pastor, I said, 'Absolutely, I agree,'" Stewart said.
Fuel for Flight took over the mission last September after Feed Our Flock had to shut down due to limited funding and support.
Retired teacher Anne Kuhn runs the organization. She said volunteers and students with special needs from Milford schools work together to keep the operation running.
"This is our storage facility, so we have volunteers come in and unpack that food and stock the shelves, and then we have students from Milford schools with special needs that come in because they need that work opportunity, and they pack for us every Wednesday and Friday," Kuhn said.
After the bags are packed, they're placed into bins and distributed across eight schools in the district and directly to families in need.
"If we're not making a real impact in the community and caring for our neighbors in very real, tangible ways, then we're not accomplishing our mission at all," Stewart said. "So it really speaks to the heart of who we are at Milford First, being externally focused, and we want people to say if this church went away tomorrow, that it would make a significant adverse effect in the community."
Kuhn said the need is greater than it might appear.
"In Milford, it doesn't look like we have kids that are food insecure, but one in four students in the district are food insecure, and we need to help out and change that," she said.
WATCH: A new organization in Milford is spending the summer packing weekend food bags so no student goes hungry once the school year begins
The bags will be available every Friday during the school year for any student on free or reduced lunch, as long as families sign up. But Kuhn said the program depends entirely on donations and needs broader community support to keep going.
"We want to get the word out, because we cannot continue to just rely solely on the congregation of Milford First. We do a lot of other mission work here, and there's a lot of great causes out there, so we need as much help as we can get, because it is strictly donations," Kuhn said.
Stewart said the program's impact is felt deeply by those involved.
"It feels really good to know we are serving a critical need in our community and making sure nobody goes hungry in our backyard," Stewart said.
Fuel for Flight distributes bags from mid-September through mid-May. Kuhn said the organization wants to ensure it has enough funding to sustain the school year before considering expanding into the summer months.
At the start of the school year, parents will receive a letter with program information and a link to sign up. Kuhn said the sign-up process is simple and discreet.
"We just ask for the student's name and the school. We don't need any additional information, so it's very discreet when we take the bags to the schools, we just need their name, so we can get a count of how many bags go there, and then it goes directly to that child, and there's no email addresses collected, no phone numbers, they just have to sign up on that sheet," Kuhn said.
Families can sign up and find more information at fuelforflight.org. Kuhn can also be reached by email at anne@milfordfirstumc.org or by phone at 513-377-7767.
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