Blessed to Be a Blessing: Chevelle’s Story

Chevelle Lewis Wagstaff and her family received food from Leavenworth Mission when her work hours were drastically reduced during the covid pandemic.

“I had high school kids and my work hours had decreased. I was actually a recipient. It was amazing,” Chevelle said. “When you have teenage kids, and they’re eating you out of house and home, it was great to drive out there and they’d put food in your vehicle.”

When Chevelle began her term as president of Leavenworth Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, she knew she wanted to focus their charitable efforts on hunger relief.

“I wanted this to be one of our established community relationships, and so we do this and the mobile pantry,” she said.

While volunteering to load grocery carts with food for a long line of neighbors in need, two of her sorority sisters, Lolita “Lita” Law and Judi Sutton-Miller, joined in to help her fill the red grocery carts with frozen meat, cheese and canned vegetables and fruit.

Chevelle likes agency director Iris Arnold’s organizational style: “I’m former military, so I like organization. Iris has this like a well-oiled machine.”

Chevelle finds helping others during tough times is also a way to help herself.

“With me, it helps with my mental health,” she said. “When you are thinking things are really bad, and then you go and do community service…it’s not like you need to see someone worse than you are (but) it helps to help someone.

“You can’t control a lot of things, but you can control that you’re going to go and help somebody else. To feel like a little piece of a big pie. Even though I can’t solve all the world problems, I can make sure people are fed.”