Lakewood Nonprofit Thrilled with First-Ever Funding from United Way

Lakewood Community Services Center will soon be mobile thanks to the United Way of Greater Cleveland.

The Lakewood nonprofit, which has been offering food assistance to residents in Lakewood, Rocky River and Westlake for 29 years, received word last week that it was selected to receive its first-ever grant from the funding giant.

(LCSC), formerly Lakewood Christian Services Center, will receive $37,777 to expand its emergency food assistance program. LCSC Executive Director Trish Rooney said the funding will enable the organization to get more food into the hands of more people in need.

“This year was our first invitation (to apply for funds) so as you can imagine we were ecstatic,” Rooney said. “We are very proud to receive funding because it’s a validation from an incredibly well-respected organization that what we do is important and worthwhile. We’re thrilled.”

The money will allow LCSC to purchase a van – another first for the organization – which will enable them to deliver food to four senior housing complexes in Lakewood.

“We serve anywhere from 700 to 750 households a month on average, but what we have found over the last couple of years there has been a steady rise in the senior population but not from seniors in senior housing,” Rooney said. LCSC had a feeling there were seniors in those complexes who needed food assistance but couldn’t physically get to and from LCSC’s location on Madison.

“When we were down on Marlowe, we were walkable from the Westerly and South Westerly and now on Madison we are not walkable anymore,” she said. With the RTA Circulator out of commission, seniors are not dropped off right in front of their buildings anymore and that can make toting groceries from the bus stop a near impossible scenario for elderly clients.

“We talked to each of the senior buildings in Lakewood – the Westerly, South Westerly, Fedor Manor, Lake Shore Towers – and we were assured that the need was there but there was just an inability to get here,” she said.

This grant will enable LCSC to make monthly deliveries to senior buildings. Volunteers will help deliver the food –enough to prepare 12 meals – directly to the door of residents in need.

“We are so thrilled to be able to do this,” Rooney said. “These seniors are all on low or very low fixed incomes and with everything getting more and more expensive it is harder and harder for our senior residents to make ends meet every month.”

The van will also enable LCSC to take advantage of picking up additional foods available daily from the Cleveland Foodbank that will add variety for clients.  

“As our numbers go up and funding for food from the county stays flat, you want to find every possible way you can to bring more food to more people,” she said.

LCSC wasn’t the only Lakewood nonprofit to received funding. North Coast Health Ministry (NCHM), which provides healthcare for more than 2,500 people each year, will receive $70,000 for chronic illness management, according to the United Way.

Lee Elmore, executive director of NCHM, said the organization will use the funds for its medical assistance program that works to connect patients with needed medications and home health equipment.

NCHM has been a United Way member agency for more than a decade, Elmore said.