‘If I see you, I’ma feed you’—Giving Tuesday meal on KC’s East Side serves people in need
For eight years running, Kansas City metro organizations have united to serve up more than just food at the annual Oh Give Thanks Community Meal.
The volunteers were at Gregg Klice Community Center on Kansas City’s East Side sharing an act of kindness on Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday is a global event that takes place each year on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
With warm food made from scratch, Tamika Pouncil knows these meals will hit home for folks in need of a family-style meal offering around this time of the year.
“We come together around food around this time of year because it comforts all people,” Pouncil said.
“Being on the streets, you build a relationship with the communities by meeting them where they are. We’re always actively looking for ways to give. You’re dealing in hope, we are hope dealers,” says Pouncil. “Not just giving them food, or handing out clothes, but getting to know the people makes them feel good, it shows that we care.”
Pouncil, the owner of Taste of Soul Catering KC, also runs a food pantry on 35th Street in Kansas City that feeds people daily.
“If I see you, I’ma feed you,” says Shelle West, executive director for Show Me You Care KC. Show Me You Care KC was founded in 2019 and has since grown into an impactful non-profit that serves the metropolitan area, using social media and an online presence to help bring the community and other organizations together.
West cites a well known Muhammed Ali quote about service as central to their mission, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.”
