“It’s really hard to say no to a hungry kid.”
Photo by Tyler Kirkendall
tri-village clubs gather
This has been a rallying cry from Tri-Village Lions Club Service Coordinator Jane Jarrow as the Lions have worked on a continuous service project that has gotten all of Tri-Village involved.
Countless organizations including the Lions, Northwest Kiwanis, the school districts, parks departments, the UA Community Foundation, and more, are committed to making sure families within the area don’t have to worry about food during Thanksgiving and Spring breaks.
With nearly 100 volunteers and thousands of dollars being donated by local individuals and organizations, the Tri-Village Packers project really shows what the community is capable of achieving.
Founding the Packers
One of the pillars of Lions Clubs nationally is relieving hunger. The Tri-Village Lions Club has been completing service projects on the east side of Columbus for years, and in 2023 it began to focus more locally.
For the Lions’ pancake breakfast this past year, people could buy tickets to donate to a local family at the Heart to Heart Food Pantry, a mission of First Community Church on West First Avenue.
“The public was very generous,” Jarrow says. “We had two mothers who came and found the people in charge and one of them said, ‘My kids would not have had anything to eat this weekend if not for this.’ Needless to say, they left with take-home boxes and more stuff.”
One mother who attended the pancake breakfast told Jarrow that her kids had never before been served a meal. Jarrow says many locals are surprised that there are people in Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff struggle with food insecurity.
“When we did some investigating, (we found) there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 240 children on free school lunch in the Upper Arlington schools, and another 80 or so on free lunch in the Grandview Schools,” Jarrow says. “These were kids from families that had issues with food insufficiency and so that’s where we were going to focus.”
Photos courtesy of Jane Jarrow
tv packer project
Inspired by other service organizations’ backpack programs, which send kids home with backpacks full of food, the Lions decided to target Thanksgiving Break as a time to offer families food when the kids are off school.
Jarrow brought the seedlings of the project to a Network UA meeting last August, where she would find more support than she’d hoped.
Jessica Grisez, executive director of the Upper Arlington Community Foundation, quickly offered a grant application to Jarrow to get funding for the project. The foundation offered $5,000 and, along with the City of UA, helped open the project up to public donations and added $4,200 to the total. Now, a team was needed to coordinate the use of these funds.
“There were three other people who stepped forward on the spot,” Jarrow says. “Kristyn Anderson from UA schools, Craig Smith from the Northwest Kiwanis Club and Emma Speight from the City of Upper Arlington said, ‘We’ll work with you on that. We want to be a part of this.’”
With the addition of new Lion, Leslie Howard, this five-person committee was set to lead and coordinate the ambitious project.
Putting together packs
The committee quickly found that once the train left the station, it would pick up steam.
Kyle Mahan from Grandview Heights Schools joined early in the process, and did outreach to find families in need in the district. Both Upper Arlington and Grandview Heights schools kept the families anonymous at the request of the Lions.
A big part of coordinating this project, however, involved accommodating each specific family’s needs due to dietary restrictions. Of the 93 kids they served, 37 had dietary restrictions.
Leslie Howard took charge ensuring restrictions were met and each bag packed was compliant.
“That was the part that I think I’m most proud of (is) making sure that what we were providing was not only useful, but safe and appropriate to the individual kids,” Jarrow says.
Photo by Tyler Kirnkendall
packers volunteers
Upper Arlington Parks and Recreation got on board, offering space at the UA Senior Center to prepare for packing day. The Grandview Heights parks department was ready to offer a pickup spot for local families.
Grandview’s Rotary Club and city council, as well as the Marble Cliff Village Administration, got involved. The Interact Club, partnering with UA Rotary, brought student volunteers to help pack. Once everyone was on board – including countless other organizations and groups that could not fit into this article – Craig Smith was managing almost 100 eager volunteers.
Preliminary packing happened on Nov. 17, and the following few days were spent packing and delivering everything to local pick-up sites.
The events, led by Smith and Jarrow, felt like a “who’s who” of volunteering in Tri-Village, with many volunteers having crossed paths during past service projects. At the end of the afternoon on Nov. 17, Smith and Jarrow were speechless that everything had been accomplished so swiftly.
93 kids had breakfast, lunch and a snack each day over Thanksgiving break thanks to the efforts of countless organizations and individuals from Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff.
“We had a couple people who showed up three days in a row and put in hours of time and said, ‘You know, I volunteer all over the city. I’ve been doing it for ages and I never knew there was a need in our community,’” Jarrow says.
A food-secure future
Since the project has picked up so much traction, Jarrow says the Lions are looking to keep the hunger-fighting train rolling. Tri-Village service organizations repeated and expanded the effort for Spring Break, packing around 4,000 food items to feed 107 kids.
Jarrow was excited to finally clear out her garage, which has served as a climate-controlled storage locker for much of the non-perishable food the Packers have collected. There are extra funds left from the project, as well, which the Packers have plans for.
“Some of the money that we have left over from this time because of all of the generous contributions, we are also arranging to put tubs into each of the schools in Grandview and Upper Arlington with grab-and-go food,” Jarrow says. “We’ve already taken one down to the Grandview schools … and (the nurse) burst into tears. She said that she and one of the teachers and the secretaries have been buying food out of pocket to have available for kids that they know are hungry.”
The City of Upper Arlington recognized the Tri-Village Lions this year with a Community Enrichment Award for its efforts on the Packers project.
“I think that’s the most important thing about the Tri-Village Packers is that all the people from the community who have gotten involved are doing something for the community,” Jarrow says. “This is for us, and this is by us, and that is what the award was for that we got from the City of Upper Arlington.”
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
