River of Refuge newsletter, September 2025

East Kansas City Church Has ‘Huge’ Impact on ROR Pantry

When two Kansas City, Missouri, churches merged a little more than a decade ago, the members decided that the Greek word for fellowship captured the spirit of the congregation.

One way Koinonia Bible Church, at 7020 Richmond Ave., carries out that mission today is as an invaluable partner to River of Refuge. The church donates much-appreciated perishable items to the ROR food pantry.

The list of what the church provides at different times is long and varied. A partial accounting is: bread, milk, salad mixes, meat (including pork chops, chicken, hamburger, and deli slices), and vegetables (including spinach, potatoes, green beans, and onions).

KBC Pantry Director Sheila Saldana and her husband, Bob, typically deliver the food the day after the church has its pantry hours on the first and third Sunday of each month. The pantry distributed 131,243 pounds of food last year.

Their small SUV is usually loaded to the gills with enough food to fill up three or four grocery carts.

“Their impact on our pantry has been huge,” said ROR Executive Director Pam Seymour. “We seldom ever got any perishable food items, which we desperately needed, and we really didn’t have a way to source them.”

Prior to the relationship with KBC, Seymour said, if ROR received a donation of perishable items, “it typically wasn’t nearly enough for all of our families to be able to utilize.”

KBC sometimes includes bonus items like muffins, pies, and Rice Krispies Treats.

When she has them, Saldana also augments food with home furnishings for the family apartments. KBC even donated play equipment to ROR when the church upgraded its own playground.

The relationship between the two organizations began last year when the Saldana’s daughter, Shanda Hawthorne, encountered ROR staff during their traditional Giving Tuesday event at the Hy-Vee in Raytown.

The KBC pantry gets food from a variety of sources, including Target and Walmart, and Hawthorne recognized a tremendous opportunity to provide the pantry’s excess food to River of Refuge.

“We hate for things to go in the trash,” she said.

Saldana is happy to help River of Refuge families.

“I believe that God put us all here to help one another,” she said. And a lot of these people, they’re working, but a lot of them are working poor. They’re working full-time jobs, but their pay still doesn’t equal up to enough to really take care of their families.”

For Seymour, the relationship with KBC illustrates the value of River of Refuge getting into the community. Being in the right place at the right time takes commitment.

“I think that you’re put in places for a specific purpose that you’re not really aware of at the time, and as long as you’re keeping your … eyes and ears open, you usually run into somebody that doesn’t know anything about your organization, and if nothing else, you have the opportunity to tell them about it,” she said.

 

Benesch Engineering Employees Return to Assist River of Refuge

River of Refuge is thankful to have so many repeat groups of volunteers, including local employees from Benesch Engineering.

Several members of the Benesch team returned to River of Refuge on a Saturday in August and did a ton of weeding. They spruced up several of our flower gardens and did weed eating around the property.

The volunteers also cleared out the area around the old ambulance bay that served the former hospital on the River of Refuge campus. A River of Refuge board member connected us with Benesch.

“It was amazing,” said Pam Seymour, executive director of River of Refuge. “We would have never, with our little bitty crew, ever been able to get all that done, and they were there for three hours and just really knocked a lot of it out.”

 

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Calvin Coolidge was not one of the more notable U.S. presidents, but he was known for his integrity and quiet demeanor.

The combination of the two led him to observe once that, “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”

As I have noted before, River of Refuge is often the beneficiary of people who embody the ideals Coolidge expressed.

And a couple of recent examples again warmed my heart — but first, let me thank Mother Nature for finally giving us a dose of fall weather!

As for our recent experiences, one came two weeks ago when I received a call from a manager at the CVS Pharmacy on East U.S. 24th Highway and South Sterling Avenue in Independence.

The manager told me the store was closing and inquired if River of Refuge would like 50 bags of ice. If you know me, of course, I said yes, and we would be grateful to receive it.  An hour later, a woman shows up from CVS, and we unload her car, which was quite cool inside due to the bags of ice.

As we unloaded her car, of course, we asked how she found us.

She wasn’t sure, but said she was really glad she did because store staff didn’t want the ice to go to waste. She regretted not knowing about us earlier because they had food, vitamins, and other items they could have given us.

She told us she had worked for CVS for more than 20 years and would be moving to a location in Liberty. She took my card and said she would keep us in mind because she comes across things all the time that we could use.

By now, you’re probably wondering how on earth we were able to receive this much ice.

Recently, we had a small chest freezer donated to us by a family that was downsizing and no longer needed it. We’d cleaned it and plugged it in a few weeks ago, so it was ready and empty to receive this unusual donation.

The freezer will be very helpful with the holidays coming up — Can you believe October is almost here? — as we celebrate with the families over dinners and parties.

Speaking of the freezer, it’s a donation Coolidge would have loved: His 1924 campaign slogan was “Keep Cool with Coolidge.”

Meanwhile, DON’T FORGET!

There is still time to become a sponsor of our Annual Fundraising Event happening on October 24th.  If a sponsorship isn’t of interest, we also have single ticket pricing and benefactor sponsorships. I hope you can join us!

For more information, please visit our event website.

Until Next Time,
Pamela Seymour, Executive Director