Tribune Excerpts
The following article appeared in the March 2008 Edition of the Macedonian Tribune
From Restaurant Kid To Feeding Kids, Mike Gouloff Makes an Impact
by, Lois Eubank
Fort Wayne -- Thanks to the generosity of Mike and Gretchen Gouloff, 350 children leave school each Friday with a backpack of nutritious food to enjoy. Until last April, when the Blessings in a Backpack program was inaugurated, many students had nothing to eat all weekend.
It all began when the Gouloffs traveled to New Orleans to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. There they met singer/actress Hilary Duff who introduced them to USA Harvest, whose mission is to move food from those who have plenty to those who have much too little.
Talking to Hilary, Mike assumed she was referring to hungry children in places like New Orleans. Back home the Gouloffs approached the Fort Wayne Community School Corporation (FWCS) and were shocked. Sixty-three percent of the students in the school district live at or below the poverty level.
“This is Fort Wayne, not Somalia,” Mike thought at the time. With 93.4 percent of the children qualifying for free or reduced-priced lunches, Adams Elementary was chosen to pilot the program.
The Gouloffs teamed with a local Meijer store to provide kid-friendly, easily prepared items to the program at a reduced cost. Once delivered to the school, a cadre of volunteers fills the backpacks with goodies such as macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, fruit roll-ups and cereal.
“The volunteer support has been great and even middle school students who graduated last spring come by to help pack,” Mike said.
The program is successful. The response from the children is positive. Attendance is up on Fridays, and the students have better attention spans.
Mike grew up in a Macedonian restaurant family where food was an important part of his life. Between his dedo Nick, father Ted and uncles Steve and Tom they owned and operated six restaurants. His family lived in the apartment above Gouloff’s, now Casa D’Angelo’s, on Fairfield Avenue. When he wanted to cross the street to play in the park, his mother would watch him from an open upstairs window and let him know when it was safe to cross.
At the age of nine, Mike knew he wanted to be an architect. In 1967, while studying at the University of Cincinnati, he held a co-op position at SchenkelShultz Architecture. He rejoined the firm in 1973 and bought it in 1985 from its founders. Today, as chairman and CEO he leads and inspires a firm with offices in Florida, North Carolina and Beijing.
SchenkelShultz underwrites the entire cost of the Fort Wayne program. Mike and Gretchen are setting the groundwork to expand the program to other schools with the financial support of the community.
Learning and studying are difficult
enough, trying to do it on a rumbling
stomach is nearly impossible. FWCS and
SchenkelShultz aspire to eliminate one
crucial barrier in students’ lives in order to
help break the cycle of child poverty.
