We’re honored to share that The Kitchen, Inc. has received a $2.5 million grant from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos through the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund to deepen our work to support families experiencing homelessness. We’re one of the 32 organizations across the country identified this year by an independent advisory group of homelessness experts for our efforts to help families in southwest Missouri find stability and achieve well-being. We plan to use this powerful, uniquely flexible grant to build on our work to serve even more families experiencing homelessness in Springfield/Greene, Christian, and Webster Counties, with the goal of ensuring no child in our community sleeps outside. Specifically, The Kitchen, Inc. plans to use this one-time grant over the next five years to stabilize families through its new shelter expansion with dignified private units, strengthen family-focused case management, and enhance onsite support, allowing more families to move from crisis to permanent housing more quickly.
We’re thankful for the Day 1 Families Fund’s support as we work to ensure that every family in our community has a safe, stable place to call home. This award also comes in a very timely manner as we are anticipating the opening of our Emergency Shelter 2.0 in 2026. This fund will allow us to support the families that will be utilizing our Shelter program and to offer them new resources during their time with us.
Learn more about the Day 1 Families Fund: Day 1 Families Fund – Bezos Day One Fund
Meet Vanessa and Larry, an example of the types of families this fund will help us support:
