By Lisa Butterworth | Special to the Courier

Sometimes a small idea can be the catalyst for enormous change, especially when it’s powered by immense passion. That’s the trajectory of We Care Big, a nascent movement started by Claremont resident Kristine Kawamura and her family to support Claremont students and families experiencing food and basic needs insecurity.

The seeds for We Care Big were planted several years ago when Kawamura’s two daughters (both now seniors at Claremont High School) were working on their Girl Scout Silver Awards. One daughter, with the help of another troop member/friend, coordinated with Rosa Leong, Claremont Unified School District’s Senior Liaison for Family and Youth Services, to create a kindness closet, where Claremont students experiencing homelessness could “shop” for donated clothes. Kawamura and Leong stayed in touch, and last year, when Kawamura and her husband offered to donate turkeys and Thanksgiving food, Leong welcomed it, sharing the deep needs of CUSD families. In fact, 44.7% of CUSD’s kindergarten through 12th-grade students and families live below the federal poverty line.

“We’re just shocked by that,” Kawamura said, her voice breaking. “I get kind of weepy when I talk about it, the need that surrounds us.” Kawamura and her family continued donating food, but in February, she was inspired to do more. “I looked to my husband, and I said, ‘You know what? We’re starting a movement, and here’s the name: It’s called We Care Big,’” she said. “And it’s to go out and to get support for our kids that are local because the world is just so messed up that what can you do to change something? Well, we can change right here.”

Kawamura is a clinical professor at Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Management, and when she took her idea to Drucker’s Dean David Sprott, it received immediate support. We Care Big, Sprott said, aligns with the school’s values, which are rooted in Peter Drucker’s ideology. “Drucker believed that society works better if organizations are run better, so we really are aimed to try and help people become better leaders, better managers, in order to make organizations of any kind run better,” Sprott said. “We talk about the critical role of humans and organizations within broader society, so things where people, like Kristine, can make a difference in the world are very important to us.”

We Care Big set up two donation sites, one at the Drucker School on the CGU campus, and another, requested by students, at the KGI Oasis Apartment Complex. In the six weeks since, 30 bags of groceries and supplies have been collected. The donations go straight to CUSD’s new Student and Family Resource Center, which opened in February at Oakmont Outdoor School.

“We’ve been giving out food every week consistently since the ribbon cutting,” said Leong, who manages the resource center, as she opened one of the center’s cabinets to reveal shelves stocked with pasta, sauce, canned goods, packaged snacks, and more. “In the past, we didn’t have the space to store anything like that,” she said. “This has just been something that we’re so grateful for.”

The center has a refrigerator, allowing for fresh food donations and distribution, and also stocks hygiene and school supplies. In addition to tangible resources, the center offers literacy programming, a washer and dryer for students to do laundry, parent education, clinical therapy for foster youth, and staff training to help CUSD faculty connect students with these resources.

“As homeless and foster youth liaisons, we do a lot of work with that student population, but we know there’s a bigger need in Claremont,” Leong said. “Our socioeconomically disadvantaged numbers have really gone up.”

Since opening, the resource center has served 31 families.

“We’d love to be able to broaden our support,” Leong said. “That’s what we’re working on now, sustainability. How can we make this a weekly thing where families can come pick up food for the week?”

Donations, Leong said, are “very important.” Millie Monroy, CUSD Liaison of Youth and Family Services, who also works at the resource center, agreed: “That’s what’s going to keep the center going. Without donations, we won’t be able to provide food for our families and our students when they’re hungry or when they’re in need.”

That’s why support from community members like Kawamura is so helpful.

“We always say we can’t do this work without our community-based organizations,” Leong said. “[Kristine] has all these wonderful ideas, and that’s what we’re looking for, [is] how do we sustain this? We’re grateful for her vision and her partnership.”

Those looking to help can contribute to We Care Big’s 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 2, donation drive at the parking lot across from the Drucker School of Management, Burkle Building, 1021 N. Dartmouth Ave., Claremont.

The donation drive is just the beginning.

“What I wanted to do is put the opportunity out into our community to get involved and say, ‘Okay, community, here, you can drive through, we’ll take everything out of your car,’” Kawamura said. “Let’s come together and let’s help our friends, our community members.”

Items needed include fresh proteins, fruits, and vegetables, milk and milk alternatives, breakfast cereal, pasta and pasta sauce, peanut butter, bread and tortillas, canned fruits, vegetables, and meat, rice, beans, and lentils, snacks, laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes, feminine hygiene products, and gas cards.

“No donation is too small,” Kawamura said.

Kawamura is also planning to teach a capstone course on the We Care Big initiative in the fall, to engage and inspire Drucker School students to apply their leadership skills to “build a sustainable, scalable strategy” for the resource center and We Care Big, she said. “I do have in mind a five-year plan to get support through CGU, the Claremont Colleges, and other community partners to do other kinds of community-based initiatives. Really, where I personally want We Care Big to go is to sponsor all sorts of initiatives, people who have a passion and a purpose for making an impact right here in the community, and supporting them to do that.”

The greater goal of We Care Big, however, operates on the heart level. Kawamura hopes it inspires “connection and care between all of our different groups here in the community. So we’re reaching out and supporting each other with all sorts of different needs with dignity and care,” she said. “There’s goodness in the world. And people want to participate. People want to care. They really want to care.”

A drive-through We Care Big donation drive takes place from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 2, at the parking lot across from the Drucker School of Management, Burkle Building, 1021 N. Dartmouth Ave., Claremont. Email kristine.kawamura2@cgu.edu for more info.