As the colder weather approaches and the holiday season takes off, food security for families in need is more important than ever. To combat this ever-present issue, Bloom Cafe, a local restaurant in Moscow, launched the “Feed a Family” program on Oct. 30 through Healthy at Home, a preexisting menu option, to provide healthy, balanced and convenient meals for the local community.
Bloom Cafe, locally owned and operated by Nara and Brandon Woodland, has always had a foundation of philanthropy and a mission of providing quality meals to those who need them. Founded in 2011, Bloom is a restaurant created out of a desire to provide a comfortable, inspiring cafe for the community to meet and enjoy fresh, homemade meals, according to its website.
After fundraising for the Prichard Art Gallery, the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre and the Palouse Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, among other nonprofit organizations, the Woodlands decided to focus efforts on local students and families by providing those same fresh, homemade meals to those in need during COVID-19 and food insecurity.
“Our community is struggling,” Nara said. “There’s a great need to help others, so through this we can give people who are struggling with food insecurity access to good food. It really ties in with the mission of the restaurant.”
The “Feed a Family” program is available for customers to order on their terms as a part of Bloom’s menu selection. Customers can choose to purchase a ‘meal for two’ ($35), a ‘meal for four’ ($65) or they can choose to ‘feed a family’ ($35). Bloom Cafe matches all donations provided by customers, doubling the people who are served by each meal. Each delivery comes with ‘conversation cards’ that the recipient family can use to foster a conversational connection and move beyond the standard “how was your day?” table talk, enriching the experience of eating a meal with loved ones.
“With the holidays coming up like Thanksgiving, people will be gathering more and… giving gratitude and thanks,” Nara said. “Food is a big part of those gatherings. We wanted everyone to have access to good, nutritious food.”
Meals are available to order on Mondays and Fridays and are delivered to the recipients by the Woodlands. ‘Holiday sides’ are available for curbside pickup on Wednesday, Nov. 25 in time for Thanksgiving dinner. The program is focused on providing aid to Moscow students and their families through partnering with Moscow’s local schools. Deliveries are coordinated with school staff and will continue even when school is not in session during upcoming holiday breaks.
“I’ve already communicated with the principals and counselors to let them know that we will continue our meal service,” Nara said. “So far, it’s been a really seamless and wonderful program with everybody being really creative and adaptive and working together.”
The program has been met with overwhelming support from Moscow’s educational institutions and has experienced a smooth integration into the schools, including Lena Whitmore Elementary, Russell Elementary, West Park Elementary, McDonald Elementary, Moscow Middle School, Moscow High School, Paradise Creek High School, Moscow Charter School and Palouse Prairie Charter School.
Kendra McMillan, the principal of Lena Whitmore Elementary School and Meghan Raney, a counselor, have been particularly involved in the program.
“We knew that this would be a benefit to our families,” McMillan said. “Bloom food is absolutely delicious and…(Nara) shops locally, so we knew this would be a benefit not only for our community but for our families at Lena.”
McMillan and Raney, along with all other participating school staff, gauge the number of students in need of food assistance through established student aid programs and knowledge already held by school counselors of students’ needs. Lena Whitmore Elementary has a Weekend Food Backpack program supported by the Idaho Food Bank, grants and family donations to provide meals for students over weekend breaks, indicating which students may benefit from the program. All meals are personally delivered by McMillan to student recipients.
“We just had our first deliveries last Friday…to two families, and you would have thought it was Christmas morning,” McMillan said. “They were so excited and so grateful and thankful.”
Katarina Hockema can be reached [email protected].