At the beginning of the year, a new nonprofit organization was formed to serve the children of Millwood by offering after-school activities and mentoring. All that came to a halt in March when the pandemic hit, and the organization has instead shifted to bringing food to people in need.

Millwood Impact, headed by former Millwood Presbyterian Church youth director Brandon Comella, is working in partnership with Millwood Presbyterian, the West Valley School District, Hutton Settlement and HUB Sports.

At the time Comella was working to obtain a 12-passenger van so the group could expand its capacity. The nonprofit took over the Star Club program run by the church that provided after-school activities to selected students in the third through the fifth grades at Orchard Center Elementary School. The students rode a bus from the school to the church.

“The bus was full,” Comella said. “We were at max capacity at 17.”

The van would allow the addition of more students and also allow the organization to bring students home at the end of the day. The Rayce Rudeen Foundation bought the van, and Comella was making plans to expand. But once schools closed, he shifted his attention to the Second Harvest Bite2Go program, which sent food home with low-income students every Friday so they would have food for the weekend.

Comella now delivers that food to students. “The van we got has a large back area,” he said. “We ended up helping or completely taking over West Valley High School, Centennial Middle School and Orchard Center. It was nice to transition quickly to help food insecure families.”

Millwood Impact has also partnered with Second Harvest to organize a free fresh and frozen food distribution every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot of the church, at 3223 N. Marguerite Road. The distribution does not count as the once-a-month food bank visit families are typically limited to.

“A lot of families are regulars and really appreciate it,” he said of the food distribution. “There’s no names taken down, no questions asked. It’s anybody who needs it.”

Though he’s finding ways to keep busy, Comella hasn’t stopped planning for the future. He launched a new web site, millwoodimpact.org, and is in the midst of a fundraising drive where donations will be matched.

The economic uncertainty has made it difficult for him to build a strong financial foundation for his organization, Comella said. “Being a new nonprofit, a lot of what I need to do is fundraise,” he said.

He got a $5,000 grant from Innovia earlier this month that will allow him to continue the Bite2Go program at the three West Valley schools over the summer. The program typically goes on hiatus when schools are closed over the summer months.

“Those families that need weekend food, they still need it over the summer,” he said.

He’s also trying to make plans for fall when school starts again, but that’s difficult because no one has decided what that will look like yet.

“It’s me trying to prepare for what the fall might look like,” he said. “We’re also thinking of plan B’s. If we aren’t open, how does it look to support these youth and families?”

He’s working to sign up and train mentors and would like to add a second van to his fleet so he can increase the program’s capacity from 25 to 36. He said he’s heard stories about how families struggled with online learning and if that happens again, he’d like to figure out a way to help.

Comella also said he hopes to be able to start weekly community meals in the fall as he originally planned.

“We have to be at least in Phase 3 to put that on,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of interest in that.”

Comella said he’s been encouraged by the amount of support and positive comments he’s gotten from the community.

“Our nonprofit is so niche focused,” he said. “It’s called Millwood Impact because our whole goal is to impact this community.”