The annual Chili Challenge, sponsored by the Bridges Academy, was held on Oct. 17 preceding the homecoming game. There were forty-five chili entries from student organizations, teachers, parents and community members thanks to the combined efforts of the DECA Marketing Program and Bridges. Each chili had a catchy and creative name (i.e. the Science Department’s “albino chili”). Some of the chili’s were mild, while others were chunky, while still others were on fire, but all of them went to a good cause: The Miller Community House.

This homeless shelter located right here in Kent serves men, women and children across Portage County. Unlike inner-city shelters in the Cleveland and Akron areas, Miller House is a shelter that allows clients to stay in the shelter during the day instead of kicking them out onto the streets from dawn to dusk. In addition, as opposed to the inner-city shelters where boys have to separate from their mothers and go to the men’s homeless shelter after age 13, the Miller House offers rooms to families and does not segregate clients based on gender.

Upon entering through the front doors of the recently built shelter, you feel that you’re walking into the house of a large Italian family or college sorority house rather than the barren and crime-filled homeless shelters depicted in the movies. To the right, three mothers sit and watch Oprah in the living room as their kids play in the adjacent playroom (which is overflowing with toys). A man and a woman peel potatoes and prepare a family-style dinner for the shelter in the kitchen. Down the corridor there are bedrooms with bunk beds, a private bathroom and closet.

The Miller House serves twenty-two people when at capacity, and according to Anne Lofaro, the shelter’s coordinator, only $600 to $800 is budgeted a month for groceries and food. If you do the math, this works out to:$700 / 30 days / 3 meals per day = $7.78 per meal to feed twenty-two mouths. When the cost of milk itself is at $3 per gallon, this does not seem like a lot of money, and it’s not.

“The Miller House uses the proceeds to fill in the gaps in our food budget,” Lofaro said, “[The Chili Challenge] is a great example of the influence that a group of dedicated high school students can have. I am very thankful for all that they are doing for us.”