Founder becomes fund-raiser for Food Bank

When AngelWorks was created, its first major donation was a $25,000 gift in 2003 to the Kansas Food Bank. AngelWorks Founder Polly Basore, previously employed as an editor at The Wichita Eagle, was moved by the plight of Wichitans in poverty following the downturn in aviation triggered by 9/11. Hundreds of Wichitans regularly showed up in line at local food pantries and the local soup kitchen, The Lord's Diner. The source of food for nearly all those feeding the poor was then, and continues to be, the Kansas Food Bank.

Through its association with America's Second Harvest, the Kansas Food Bank is able to buy $10 worth of food for $1. "I have yet to find a better investment of a charitable dollar than that," Basore said.

AngelWorks made a second major gift of $18,000 to the Food Bank in 2003 when it began the Food 4 Kids program, supplying backpacks of non-perishable food to feed kids in need over the weekend. Basore wanted to help grow the program, which was being piloted in just three schools at that time. Thousands of children in hundreds of schools are now served by Food 4 Kids.

No longer actively running AngelWorks, the organization's founder is pleased to announce she will begin working full-time raising money for the Kansas Food Bank as its new development director. Basore officially begins in this new role on May 1, 2009. But if you want to make a donation now to feed Kansas' hungry, you may do so here.