TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - Many groups provide hot meals for people in need during the holiday season, but a new Facebook initiative is taking it a step further. The group "Feeding Toledo" allows users to post if they're in need of food, and also if they're interested in providing food for another member.
"It's an easy concept: anyone who feels like they're struggling right now, maybe paycheck to paycheck, and needs a meal, they can post on the site that they are in need and a member can offer the food to help them out," said Eva Kukla, Feeding Toledo founder. "We either go to them or they come to us and we give them the food they need."
Kukla says over the summer she was surprised to find out how many people in Toledo aren't able to put dinner on the table regularly.
"I was sick, my husband bought a meal, and I didn't feel like eating. I was on a garage sale website, and I was kind of bed-ridden," she said. "So I decided to post it, thinking that there might be a family out there that could benefit from the meal. I got 200 posts in less than a half an hour. I was floored."
After receiving the overwhelming response of people in need, the idea for the Facebook group was born. Kukla's home serves as Feeding Toledo's headquarters, and it's currently filled with items to put together for 100 Christmas meal boxes.
"This is where everybody d rops off food that they have some extra stuff and don't have time to post it, they'll bring it here," she said. "They'll leave it here and we'll put boxes together for families. And somebody might say that they need a meal that night. We'll throw together a quick box and get it to them."
Feeding Toledo has only been active since August, but it's already garnered support and attention from the community.
"We're 3,000 (members) in, which, to me, is incredible. It may not seem like a lot to a lot of people, but that's 3,000 people in Toledo. I would say half of them are in need, and half of them are here because they want to help. It's amazing," said Kukla. "What I have found is there's a lot of people who really want to give, and they just don't think they have enough to give, and that it's not going to make a big difference. But what they're finding is that extra can of spaghetti sauce, and that box of spaghetti in their cabinet really means a lot to somebody. And that's huge. That's huge that something so small could mean so much."
For Kukla, the initiative is a dream come true.
"It's what I've always wanted to do. I've always been this way, but I didn't know how, I didn't have a platform. It's been amazing, more than I thought it would be," she said.
However, the work couldn't be done without assistants like Barb Newbury.
"We work full time, but we still go around town. We're out wherever people are needed, and wherever people need the food," said Newbury. "It's sad, but it's a good cause. It's very rewarding, for sure. It's a contagious thing. They see one group or person driving around doing it, and it's contagious."
Kukla has a response for anyone who says the group may be enabling community members:
"As far as I'm concerned, I don't care why they need the help," said Kukla. "They asked for the help, and that's good enough for me."
