On Friday afternoons in Milford, there’s a small but familiar routine that plays out in schools across the city. Bags are lined up, classrooms are cleaned, and doors close after the final bell. But for some students, the end of the day also means something discreetly placed in their backpacks before they head home – food to make the weekend a little easier.
It’s a quiet system, and it’s meant to be. Most of the people who benefit from it never see how it comes together, and most of the people who run it don’t see the children they serve.
Milford Food 2 Kids started in 2015 after Michele Steinlauf came across a weekend food program while visiting family in Georgia, and it stuck with her. When she returned home, she brought the idea to Orange Avenue Elementary School Principal Carol Swift and asked if there were students in Milford who might need something similar.
The answer was an overwhelming yes.
That moment turned into a small pilot program, starting with 26 children, some early funding, and volunteers gathered in a church, trying to figure out what this would look like in practice.
“We were the ones to showcase the fact that there was food insecurity among all of these students,” Steinlauf said about herself and Reverend Ashley Grant, the duo behind the organization’s Milford roots.
From there, it didn’t stay small for long.
Today, Milford Food 2 Kids operates in every public school in the city, supporting about 250 children each week. The idea itself hasn’t changed much over the years: shelf-stable food is packed into weekend bags and delivered to schools on Fridays, where staff make sure it reaches the students who need it.
One of the most fundamental values of the program is discretion.
“The kids are all anonymous to us,” Steinlauf explains. “The school staff selects them, and then they just give us a number per school, and we just deliver that many bags.”
Each week follows the same rhythm. Volunteers pack the food on Thursdays. Deliveries go out on Fridays. And then the school staff handles the final step, making sure the bags get to where they need to go without drawing attention to it.
The work is carried by volunteers, around 50 people who rotate through packing nights and deliveries, along with local groups and community members who step in when they can.
Support from the community has been steady from the beginning. Early help from The Milford Bank helped the program get off the ground, and over time, other local partners came alongside them, including Town Fair Tire, Dockside Brewery, Big Smiles, and Family Security Plan, along with ongoing support from individuals and school-based efforts.
Still, Steinlauf and Revered Grant keep coming back to something simple; this only works because people show up in whatever way they can.
“Any amount helps,” Grant said. “We have schools that have done penny drives. Whether it’s a dime or $10,000, any amount is going to help feed a kid.”
And over time, what started as weekend food support has grown into something even broader. Families now reach out through schools when things get more difficult – through job loss, medical issues, or unexpected situations that stretch resources thin. The response has expanded with the need.
“We get individual requests from different social workers in the schools for a family who may be suffering from a medical issue or sudden unemployment – anything like that. And we support them in a lot of different ways,” Grant said.
The support has taken different forms: grocery gift cards during SNAP disruptions, winter hoodie drives, and even basic hygiene items when families need them most.
“We provide toothbrushes. That’s another simple but big thing that means a lot,” Grant explains.
Since its inception, the organization has become less of a single program and more of a network that responds to what’s needed week by week.
“We’re hoping that kids have this need to thrive, and in order to do that, sometimes it’s a little bit beyond what that food can provide.”
A big part of keeping it running now is the partnership with Milford’s Fifth Year Vocational Education Program (F.Y.V.E.), led by Suzy Garfield. Students in the program help handle deliveries every week, bringing the bags directly into schools.
Looking ahead, Milford Food 2 Kids is preparing for its November 2026 gala, which brings together sponsors, donors, and community members to support the upcoming year. It’s one of the organization’s biggest fundraising moments, with opportunities for sponsorships, donations, and auction contributions.
For Steinlauf and Grant, though, it always comes back to the same place it started: a simple question, a small beginning, and a community that kept it going.
"Any amount helps... Whether it’s a dime or $10,000, any amount is going to help feed a kid."
"We get individual requests from different social workers in the schools for a family who may be suffering from a medical issue or sudden unemployment...And we support them in a lot of different ways."