Kennett Area Community Service began as a food cupboard. We continue to serve our community more broadly with a focus on the root causes of poverty through these programs:
Food Cupboard: The largest service of its kind in Southern Chester County, we distribute an average of 68,000 pounds of healthy and nutritious food every month. Our services provide food access to many community members including the working poor, and seniors on fixed incomes. Participants shop at our food cupboard, and we deliver to homes and low-income communities.
Emergency Assistance and Housing Stability: Our case workers provide emergency assistance and crisis services related to housing stability. We help families afford to stay in safe housing when possible and find new homes when necessary. Housing is essential to preventing or breaking the cycle of poverty.
New Housing Initiative: KACS is working to provide affordable rental properties for low-income renters. This program will make a lasting impact on our community’s affordable housing landscape and provide a stream of rental income to sustain KACS.
Bridges Out of Poverty Workshops: Our Getting Ahead and Staying Ahead programs, part of the national Bridges Out of Poverty model, help individuals in poverty build long-term resources for a more prosperous life. We also offer Bridges trainings to better equip our community to understand and address the root causes of poverty.
An Ideal Future Location
Our Appeal to You
KACS improves life for everyone in Southern Chester County by ensuring that homelessness and poverty have no place here. This new building will allow us to continue to significantly grow our services and enhance our impact.
Join in this transformative effort that will strengthen our community where everyone is responsible for its success. Please consider how your commitment can make this campaign successful. Your support will make an important, lasting difference.
Our Current Space: KACS’s two small buildings have experienced a fire and multiple floods, requiring extensive restoration. Both buildings are undersized, inefficiently configured to support our work, and lack essentials such as dedicated parking, sufficient food cupboard space for rising need, an indoor waiting room for families at our Food Cupboard, and a classroom for Bridges Out of Poverty workshops.
In a single year, KACS serves about 7% of our community. Our participants range in age from children to the elderly. We serve the working poor, many of whom have essential jobs in industries important to our local economy like hospitality, agriculture, landscaping, and retail, and the poorest of the poor. We provide a safety net to ensure that no one in Southern Chester County needs to go without food or shelter.
Welcoming entrance for all who visit KACS
Store, sort, and prepare food for distribution at KACS
Case management for homelessness and crisis services
Showers and Laundry for those experiencing homelessness
Administration and staff offices
Tenant and Community Partner office spaces
For KACS, partner agencies and collaborating groups
Three loading docks – two truck and one car
Store style facility for participants to choose the healthy food they need
Dedicated drop-off area for community donations
Participants can shelter from the weather while waiting for their ride
KACS’s new building project has already begun and is expected to cost $15 million. We have commitments of $5 million dollars in matching funds from the Federal Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), $500,000 from Chester County, and the $750,000 value of the donated land. We are now seeking to raise $10 million from individuals, foundations, government entities, and corporations in support of this project over the next three years. This support will create a much-needed permanent home for KACS and increase our organizational capacity to meet community needs for years to come.
Naming opportunities
Project Budget: $15 million
Join us as we make our community a better place for everyone to live.
Your vital support will represent a fundamental investment in the health and stability of Southern Chester County, helping to prevent hunger and homelessness in the short term and giving our most vulnerable neighbors a path forward out of poverty.
Campaign gifts can include gifts of cash paid in full now as well as pledges paid over multiple years and gifts of non-cash assets.
Contact us today to discuss the form your campaign support will take and the difference it can make for KACS and our community.
70 Years of Strengthening our Community
Thank you for your interest in “Together We Build Hope”, Kennett Area Community Service’s campaign to build our new, permanent home.
We’re glad you’re here and would like to share more information with you about the work KACS does to strengthen our community. Please complete the form below and we will contact you shortly:
