Start Right CDC - Hunger Center

Start Right C.D.C. – Start Right Community Development’s  Hunger Center mission is to
alleviate hunger in the city of Cleveland Heights and surrounding neighborhoods, one family at a time, with the love and compassion and the transformational power of the Gospel.

 Start Right CDC has a Hunger center with 2 programs that we operate out of a 3404 square ft lower hall located at 977 Caledonia Road Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44112.

Of the people we serve in our 2 programs, 34% are children under18 years of age. 15% are elderly. 14% of households have at least one employed adult. 79% have incomes below the federal poverty level. 5% of those receiving food are homeless and 76% of those served have completed high school.

We are seeking $15,580

. The funds will be used to help secure a full-time volunteer coordinator who will ensure volunteer satisfaction annually within our 2 programs.


Program 1:

Our community lacks free activities for school age children in the summer. Parents are not home and many children are left with nothing to do. We provide a safe place for children to have fun and stay out of trouble. For the past 6 years we have provided a free lunch site for school age children every summer for 7 weeks. We feed an average of 60 children a day and use a volunteer staff of 10 for a 3 hour program. Our annual meal totals have increased each year and have reached 2,949 for youth ages 4-17. We collaborate with the Police and the Fire Departments which allows them to build relationships with neighborhood children and talk to them about safety.

Our Need:

In our effort to provide a first class experience for the children we serve, we need your help to purchase a 5 ton central air conditioning system for ($3,180.00). The increasing number of children that are coming to the program has also increased the temperature of the room. Cooler temperatures will allow us to provide an atmosphere more conducive to programming for the children and will help keep the tempers of the children under control as they interact with each other.

Program 2: 

We operate a self choice pantry, which means our neighbors will encounter a facility where they can have their food insecurity needs met and still keep their dignity by having the ability to choose what they need. When we began in 2012 we were serving an average of 40 families monthly. We now serve an average of 105 families per month and our numbers continue to grow each year.

We distribute food every 4th Saturday and we give each family a 3 day supply of food. Our program receives reduced cost items from the Cleveland food bank that we distribute for free.

Our Need:

In our effort to provide a first class experience for the families we serve, we need your help to purchase a high efficiency furnace for $3,440.00. The winters have become increasingly colder and it has been difficult to heat the 3404 square ft space we use. The 3 story building has a boiler system that must heat the entire building in order to heat our space. We use the space 12 times a month for delivery, set-up and distribution, during the 8 winter months. To make it comfortable for our clients and volunteers, we need to request to keep a 2 million BTU furnace on high for 24 hours prior to our use.     


Our facility has 3 flights of stairs that are hard for our clients who are elderly.

We are raising funds to install 2 used chair lifts for $2,800.00






 Thank you for helping us improve the quality of service we provide to our community