Starting a non-profit wasn’t what Lisa Johnson had planned for her life following early retirement; until she found an unmet need in her community. The need being there was no academically focused after-school program for middle school students; the solution was the Mentors&Meals Program.

43% of the school children in Woodford County receive free or reduced-price lunch. This includes children who come from families with earnings at/below 185% of the federal poverty line. Ultimately, these students are from low-income homes and are eating breakfast and lunch at school but maybe very little in the evenings.

The primary goal of Mentors&Meals (M&Ms) is to enhance academic achievement by providing mentoring/homework assistance and a hot meal to middle school students. M&Ms also utilizes peer mentors and tutors from the local high school along with adult senior RSVP Trailblazers volunteers.

She formed relationships with community organizations such as: the local schools to obtain transportation from the middle school to the M&Ms site, her church (to house the program), local businesses (for funding support), other non-profit organizations (for donations of food and supplies), and United Way of the Bluegrass’ RSVP Trailblazers Program to provide senior mentor volunteers.

Once Lisa obtained the funding, location, volunteers and community support, she executed an 8-week M&Ms Program trial. The outstanding outcome was that 36 out of 40 student participants showed a 90% improvement in their overall grade point average (GPA). The average GPA rose from 2.4 to 2.7 in just 8-weeks.

Other outcomes from this quarter are as follows:

• 28 adult volunteers dedicated 636 Community Service Hours • 50 mentors dedicated 757 hours toward tutoring • 1297 meals served • Lisa Johnson dedicated 680 hours to M&Ms that quarter

M&Ms reaches out to help students succeed educationally and socially, at a time when they are making critical decisions such as whether or not to do well in school, or whether to study or hang-out on the street corner. Important decisions are made and lifestyles formed.

What is so inspirational about Mentors&Meals is that it provides students with the tools they need for success: a hot meal, positive role models, encouragement and a place where they feel welcomed. We can measure the extrinsic factors however; we cannot measure the impact the program is having on students’ confidence, pride and ownership.

As Advisory Council Chairman and Volunteer Station Supervisor for the RSVP Trailblazers, Ms. Johnson also understands the importance of the intergenerational connection of having senior adults tutoring and mentoring to teens. Her vital recruitment efforts for RSVP have made Mentors&Meals the winner of both the RSVP’s Most Improved Volunteer Station and the Star Station of the Year award for 2012.

Lisa Johnson saw a need and utilized her strengths and skills to start a program that’s making a real difference. This isn’t just a hobby, this is her passion! Johnson would like nothing better than to see a Mentors&Meals program in every county in Kentucky!