Community Service
Members of the Meeting have always been moved to put their shared Quaker values of nonviolence, sustainability, and equality to work in the Kalamazoo community. We list some of our current efforts here.
“What are we doing as a Meeting to communicate our presence and our principles to those around us?”
Adda Dilts Peace Park
The Meeting maintains and oversees the Peace Park adjacent to the Meetinghouse. As one vehicle for our outreach to the surrounding community, the Peace Park exists to be a place of play and safety for children and their families in Kalamazoo's Douglas neighborhood. In addition to its role as a playground, it serves periodically, along with the Meetinghouse, as a site for a variety of community centered activities (homework help, Family Table, holiday picnics, etc.) Park use is predicated on principles of non-violence, respect for others, and personal responsibility. Alcohol and drug use is prohibited.
In summer 2022, the Peace Park hosted the End of the Year Ice Cream Social and National Night Out.
The Adda Dilts Peace Park, as viewed from the west.
The Family Table
Once a month, the Kalamazoo Friends Meeting partners with the Western Michigan University Student Dietetic Association to serve an evening meal to our neighbors, many of whom live below the poverty level. The students prepare the meal in the Meetinghouse kitchen, and the neighbors eat either in the downstairs social room or, if the weather is nice, picnic on the patio. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the students have prepared meals to go. Members and attenders of KFM often join in to get better acquainted with the neighbors. The students do a great job of introducing nutritious ingredients that may not be familiar and of making the food festive reflecting the holiday of the month or season of the year.
Volunteers present their meals prepared at the Family Table.
ISAAC Interfaith Action
ISAAC, short for Interfaith Strategy for Advocacy & Action in the Community, is a diverse "faith-based organizing group" dedicated to working towards solving Kalamazoo's most pressing issues. ISAAC supports get-out-the-vote, affordable housing, education and public transport funding in Kalamazoo. Members of the Meeting contribute to ISAAC's Community Task Forces.
Learn more about ISAAC at https://isaackalamazoo.org/.
National Night Out
National Night Out is a national, annual community-building event that aims to foster closer relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve. The Meeting recently hosted a National Night Out event in summer 2022 at the Adda Dilts Peace Park.
Learn more about National Night Out at https://natw.org/.
