The Mid-Continent Public Library’s Grandview Branch provides a community space where Miracle safely spends the bulk of her days. 

“I get on the computer. I play games. I read books and I listen to music on my phone,” said the 24-year-old whose favorite author is Dr Suess. 

Miracle often arrives at the library hungry. Her mother has asthma and diabetes. Her health was further weakened by Covid-19, which sickened her for 147 days. 

Miracle looks forward to receiving Give Lunch to keep hunger at bay. The brown-bag lunches are provided by Harvesters and handed out to neighbors in need by librarians and resource staff. 

“They are nice, and they calm. They like kids, and they like to be around us,” Miracle said of her daily interactions with the library staff. 

The Give Lunch bags typically contain nonperishable, ready-to-eat items such as chips, applesauce or a fruit cup with pop-top, a shelf-stable protein such as hummus or sun butter or chicken or tuna salad, granola bar, whole-grain crackers, an individually packaged snack item, and water, shelf-stable milk or 100% juice. 

Harvesters’ Give Lunch program has two components: a food or fund drive followed by a volunteer activity to pack the bags. Food service provider Sysco offers better than retail pricing for any group able to raise $2,000 or more for the effort. 

Depending on the day and time of year, the Grandview branch gives out 10 to 50 Give Lunch bags per day. The need usually rises whenever school-age children are out of school on summer or other breaks. 

Miracle usually takes some of the food provided in her Give Lunch bag home with her. 

“Harvesters is essential. It is vital here, it really is,” said another library patron who, like Miracle, visits the library frequently. 

“There’s a lot of times I don’t have cash (for food), but I can always come down here and they have Harvesters’ Give Lunch,” adding the option makes her life “tremendously better. It really is life or death.” 

The grateful library patron lives with parents, but many of the regular patrons are unhoused. Some patrons are willing to go out of their way on the bus to reach such a resource because they feel welcome and a part of the Grandview branch community. 

“You’re sheltered more, taken care of more. You’re remembered. When you come in, the librarians know you…People have told me they feel safe here,” the patron said. 

Community Resource Coordinator Felicia Uche sums it up this way: “It’s big part of our day-to-day (for patrons), and it’s been transformative for the library itself.”