Millwood Impact is a neighborhood program

By Emma Maple

A small nonprofit with big influence, Millwood Impact serves the Spokane West Valley community through after-school programs, shared meals and a community garden. 

Millwood Impact is the brainchild of Brandon Comella, former youth director at Millwood Community Presbyterian Church.

Because he was also involved in the West Valley School District, he began dreaming of going bigger—after-school programs, interns and more. The church didn't have the funds to support that, so Brandon decided to find funding that could support the kinds of programs he envisioned.

The first facet of Millwood Impact, launched before the organization, was the STAR Club after-school mentoring program.

"It's been a great community partner because it provides support for the students after hours," said Kyle Rydell, West Valley School District superintendent. "It creates these cool mentors and additional support for students, outside of family or school structures." 

At first, the club was only for a limited number of third-through-fifth graders at Orchard Center Elementary School, but the program was so successful that "other schools were jealous that only Orchard Center kids could participate," Kyle joked.

After that, the idea for a nonprofit began to take shape. Brandon assembled a board of directors, built a website and was approved by the IRS at the end of 2019. When someone gave Brandon a $50,000 donation in January 2020, he was able to fully step into running Millwood Impact.

A few months later, COVID hit, and the largest part of Millwood Impact, the STAR Club, was shut down.

Brandon had to pivot quickly. 

The mission statement of Millwood Impact is to address "unmet essential needs for the health and well-being of kids and families in the Millwood and West Valley Community," according to the website.

To make the needed shift, Millwood Impact began focusing on the second way of addressing this mission: tackling food insecurity.

During COVID, local schools, struggling to distribute weekend food bags for the kids, reached out to Brandon for help. Millwood Impact took over that program for all seven schools in the district.

"Brandon and his team partnered with the district to fill a gap," Kyle said.

After COVID ended, the meal program dropped off and STAR Club restarted, later fueled by additional funding through a grant from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

Now, there are more than 70 kids in the program, and about 75 percent of those come from one form of poverty or another, Brandon said. 

That club has been a "huge benefit for kids," Matt Royston, senior pastor of Millwood Community Presbyterian Church, said. "One of the things we all see, especially with younger members of this community, is often a sense of needing to belong.

"It's tough to be a young person finding your way in the world," he added. "Millwood Impact provides some loving people who can give them a glimpse of what life can be as they strive to be the fullest version of themselves."

Millwood Impact runs with the help of 25 volunteers and support staff who live and work in the community. Another program it operates is monthly community meals, where people gather to meet their neighbors and enjoy quality food on real plates with real silverware.

These community meals also include programming from community partners, such as libraries, on how they work and what resources are available. Brandon said about 30 to 170 people show up every month.

"It's a connection point for many neighbors who don't necessarily have regular connection points," Matt said.

The organization also delivers about 200 meals to families in need, usually identified through school counselors. It also manages the Millwood Community Garden, helping to educate people on how to grow healthy food.

"Millwood Impact has exploded in the last five years, and it's just been fun to watch," Matt said.

The organization, although a secular nonprofit, is aided by a partnership with Millwood Community Presbyterian Church, which allows Millwood Impact to use its offices and community center. In addition, a few members of the church are regular volunteers with Millwood Impact.

"Each community, I would hope, enhances the other," Matt said.

Millwood Community Presbyterian Church also houses another nonprofit, Project ID. This organization serves adults with special needs.

"What's been fun is seeing how Millwood Impact has connected with Project ID through shared space," Matt said, noting that they will co-work on projects and help work together on the community garden, among other things.

In the future, Kyle said he would love to see Millwood Impact serve every school in the district and more volunteers help to support the organization.

While Brandon said that, in the short term, he wants to continue "to do what we're doing well," larger dreams include farming more land and providing fresh produce to the school district.

"We have bigger dreams," Brandon said, "but we're trying to continue to build a good foundation for what we're doing and see who we are."

For information, call 481-5720, email millwoodimpact@gmail.com or visit millwoodimpact.org