Moms On a Mission (MOMs), a grassroots, community group of mothers who show up at Madison East High School every day to help foster a positive school community for students, are back for their fourth year. And as the school year kicks off today, they are doing some fundraising to help serve as many young people as possible.
“Last year we were funded by Madison Public Health, we got a big grant, and that was amazing. We had snacks, and we had a fund to help with different things like coats and gloves and school supplies.” Kaziah Anderson, co-founder of MOMs, tells Madison365. “Unfortunately, the funds from that grant have run out and MOMs are busy trying to find a new way to fund the organization.”
To support their important work at East, MOMs is looking to raise $5,000 to cover the cost of the snacks and other things that MOMs will distribute during the lunch period this year. A GoFundMe has so far raised $1,755 of its $5,000 goal
“Right now, we’re just trying to get started for the school year with the GoFundMe but we have also looked into a couple of grants that we could get starting in December,” Anderson says. “In the meantime, we’re really just trying to make it for the first semester. The kids know we’re down there now, so we really give out about $800 worth of snacks a week.”
About a month ago, the MOMS held a community cookout fundraiser sponsored by Madison Public Health, that was a community response to recent violence, including the mass shooting at the Lux Apartments earlier this summer.
“The community cookout was great and it brought awareness services to students who have been recently impacted by gun violence,” Anderson says. “We had a fun time.”
This will be the fourth year that the volunteers of MOMs will be showing up every day to “make a difference on the ground in young people’s lives.“
“Our first two years, we did it unpaid. Our third year, we were funded by [Madison] Public Health for 10 hours a week, which was not enough,” Anderson says. “We’d love to be able to do this and have 20 hours a week, where we could set up for lunch, two hours a day, and still have time to do different special things for the students, do administrative stuff, go shopping, that kind of thing. We’ve counted on our community to come together and help us to support the students.”
Anderson says that the community has really let them know about the difference that MOMs have been making at Madisons East over the last few years.
“We started MOMs in November of 2021, and when we started, there were fights every day,” she remembers. “Last year, we had three fights and one time the police were called, and that was it. So we’ve really went from an environment during lunch where the kids were tense and nervous that a fight was going to break out at any point in time to now where the students come singing down the street and they can’t wait to see us and we greet them.”
MOMs create a nonviolent environment by being present, creating relationships, and de-escalating conflict.
“We talk with the students and we greet them when they come to the table and we ask how they are doing. We’re not just here to pass out snacks. We’re really engaging with every student that comes to the table,” Anderson says. “It would be really nice to get to a point where we do have a little fund to do things like giving out school supplies, or providing for students who need help with things like getting a cap and gown …. whatever it might be.”
MOMs are able to do what they do because of dozens of volunteers who support approximately 500 students every day. MOMs are always in need of volunteers for the new school year. If interested, you can sign up here.
