Cleaver: Witnessing community-building 'as great or greater than I have ever seen'

Just the vaccination operation alone under way here at 27th and Prospect in Kansas City outshined anything Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II said he has seen in his national view as a U.S. Congressman.

But what is happening at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church’s Youth and Family Life Center is so much more, he said.

“This is absolutely amazing,” Cleaver said after touring the center to see how the church’s partnership with LINC has marshaled so many resources to get thousands vaccinated, fed and comforted against the pandemic.

LINC’s Janet Miles-Bartee leads Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II through the vaccination room at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church’s Youth and Family Life Center.

“This is as great, if not greater, than anything I have ever seen as it relates to Covid,” Cleaver said. “(And) this is not just a Covid project. This is a community-building project.”

Cleaver was touring the facility along with former State Sen. Kiki Curls March 31, and they saw more Kansas Citians prepping to join the thousands who have already received more than 11,000 vaccinations here. They also saw the lineup of cars outside filing through to receive meat, vegetables, breads and desserts from a service that has distributed more than 100,000 pounds of food.

These were neighbors reached by the wide net of care that the church and its partners have cast into east Kansas City. These communities have been historically underserved, hurt most by the pandemic and hardest to reach with vaccines.

The operation only continues to grow, the Rev. John Modest Miles told Cleaver and Curls.

“There is no ending in sight as long as the people keep coming,” Miles said. “And as you can see now, the people are coming.”

LINC staff are helping the church draw in people who need the vaccine, said LINC Executive Vice President Janet Miles-Bartee.

“We’re bringing people in from the bus stop,” she said. “We’re bringing people in from the streets.”

Cleaver and former State Sen. Kiki Curls visit a preparation room at Morning Star.

A bank of phone operators and schedulers map out the week’s appointments, figuring that the team of vaccinators from the Missouri National Guard and the Kansas City Fire Department can take care of 106 people per hour, Miles-Bartee said.

“(The church and LINC team) have been very strategic in how we schedule,” she said. “People are not standing in long lines.”

Curls praised the efficiency of the work.

“Obviously, what’s happening here is phenomenal,” Curls said. “I certainly believe it is probably the largest operation here, certainly with the vaccine and food distribution.”

Capt. Tony Rich of the Missouri Air National Guard, in the March LINC Commission meeting, described the work that his unit has done in the vaccination mission as “the height of my experience” in a dozen years of military service.

Morning Star, LINC and their partners are “force multipliers,” Rich said. It’s a military term to describe a team that accomplishes exponentially more than what is otherwise possible.

After the visit, driving the Congressman in his vehicle out of the Morning Star parking lot, Cleaver’s aide had to navigate past the pedestrians and the traffic flowing in and out — as the people kept coming.

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer

Video edited by Bryan Shepard

Teams distribute food outside the Youth and Family Life Center at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church.