Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Flores.
Kathryn, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Mission Moms was born with one mother’s vision… to show love and support to families met with challenging times while simultaneously teaching her own children how to serve. The importance of giving, serving within their communities and acting upon the kindness within their hearts is something every child possesses, it’s our duty as parents to train-up that gift and leave a lasting mark upon someone else’s lives… we believe the ACT of serving is muscle-memory. The more a child serves, the more likely they will serve others for a lifetime.
Kathryn Flores, Founder of Mission Moms, began its outreach in October 2011 after seeing our children’s (then Evan, 6 yrs and Lincoln 4 yrs) excitement about toys that would be available that Christmas. Commercials and magazines flooded their innocent souls and, as children do, wanted everything they saw in multiple colors and versions. We have always tried to lead them along the path of helping others, but we believe it takes action to make a lifelong impact. We believe it is our obligation to groom two boys into men that will lead great families and make a difference in the lives of others. With the help of school counselors, the brainstorming began to take flight and we began orchestrating ways to teach children about serving with kindness and appreciation for their blessings. Each mission is personal, for a specific cause, with a unique focus, helping extraordinary people.
Within days, Mission Moms grew tremendously, thus proving so many parents were looking for a way to teach their own children a Servant’s heart. Our community was hungry to help and did not disappoint! There are so many fabulous causes and ways to give back, but seeing the needs here, in our backyard, was simply shocking. We hope our missions will energize area residents, businesses and organizations to begin reaching out to those that have met challenging circumstances and give them the kindness that we have been fortunate and blessed enough to experience. We believe we will provide the assistance needed to provide positive opportunities to help others that may otherwise go unnoticed to bigger charities. We are beyond humbled at such overwhelming reception that friends and their friends and relatives of friends have shown the families within our reach.
Hunger is a gateway to significant obstacles in the lives of vulnerable children in our own backyard. Spring Break, Summer & Holiday Blessings provide meals to identified families that qualify through the State of Texas for a free/reduced school meal. Volunteer children donate, sort and distribute each box… the adults also volunteer and serve by constantly teaching children during the mission. The public gatherings give caring people an opportunity to interact with one another and build a rapport that will be useful in future projects. The many stories of gratitude melt the hearts of all of us that played a part in making others’ lives a little easier to manage. Hunger is too often a gateway to further challenges in a child’s adolescence. We believe every child needs someone that loves them, something to look forward to and something to do… Mission Moms will continue to aid in the hunger challenges of Tarrant and Denton County children.
The vision for Mission Moms is working and our own children are the proof! We are all so, so blessed to be able to give and teach our children to give. One child at a time, we can make a difference! The gratitude from families receiving our gifts as well as equal stories from volunteers. Volunteer children, as well as recipient children, are understanding empathy paralleled with action and what their hands and hearts are capable of. We often use the analogy of a mother’s fear of her children’s hands, releasing hers and growing up way too fast. However, I’m learning when our children’s tight grip releases, it frees both of our hands to help someone else. That’s what Mission Moms is all about. TEACH. SERVE. ACT.
Has it been a smooth road?
Each mission is personal, for a specific cause, with a unique focus, helping extraordinary people. In times of struggle, Mission Moms rises with generosity and gentleness to help our community’s most vulnerable through their individual “hardship Olympics… each family’s challenge is the center of their universe, so their struggles are met with grace and tenderness.
During the “corona clarification,” we quickly realized who is truly essential in making a difference in the lives of deserving families in our own backyard. Who we serve is never contingent upon any worldly circumstance, yet during the pandemic, what is certain is uncertainty for so many! In this time of extending grace, we have found that within our own communities, harnessing emotional intelligence for the betterment of others is a mass group tribe of extraordinarily gentle. Generous people focused on serving beyond the walls of their own home or business.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mission Moms story. Tell us more about your organization.
Mission Moms is a Denton County-based 501(c)3 community nonprofit serving local, deserving families throughout the year. At the decade anniversary this November for Mission Moms, they set an aggressive goal to serve 2000 families at the annual Holiday Blessings, up from 1200 in 2019. Covering nearly 26 schools and several districts, they rely on continuous cooperation with Communities in Schools of North Texas, district liaisons, counselors, social services, superintendents as well as local and state government.
Of the roughly 32,000 students in Denton ISD, 46% qualify for the state-funded free or reduced meal program through the Child Nutrition Department. The numbers are just as staggering in Lewisville ISD and beyond, yet very few dig into the needs so close to home. “It’s really tunnel vision for so many. No-fault to anyone. We’re all just doing our best to stay afloat in this busy time.” Mission Moms served over 250 food bags in their Spring Break Blessings mission just a week before the pandemic onset. Over the past couple of weeks, Mission Moms teams served alongside DISD by distributing meals to low-income communities via bus routes and continuing the feet-on-the-street grocery deliveries. On Saturdays, the tireless team takes their meals mobile by assembling food bags from area donations and go “feet-to-the-street” with their eagerness to serve the deserving… altogether reaching over 2000 kids per week.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
To date, Mission Moms has received help and food donations from churches, local government friends, Town Hall, neighbors, school districts and local restaurants. While passionately positive, the group needs even more help as children remain out of school and families fall on even harder times through job losses and illnesses and don’t have the means to stock up on food by themselves. Our goal remains steadfast… teach the Servant’s Heart. It’s a version of ‘muscle memory’ for so many… the more we do it, the more natural it becomes like swinging a baseball bat. If we continue to seek ways to serve in our own community and act upon the kindness of our people, I genuinely believe we’re encouraging moral betterment and creating a better place.
Realistically, we are staring at 18 weeks or more of continuing the momentum. We are beyond blessed by the unwavering support and donations but we just need more. I’m hoping to motivate new groups, churches, school groups, school teams, businesses to join the charge. We are all His people and we always take care of our own. I love the energy and power of good people helping in extraordinary times in my beloved Denton County. We will rise up out of this even stronger, I have no doubts.
Contact Info:
- Address: 210 Fawn Hollow Drive
Argyle TX 76226 - Website: https://www.missionmoms.org/
- Phone: 2147345783
- Email: kathryn.flores@missionmoms.org
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