Becky Schulte, Coordinator, Grants at Children’s Hunger Fund.
Becky first came to Children’s Hunger Fund as a teenager. Her youth pastor brought her youth group to a volunteer session on a Saturday morning, and she was put to work bagging food.
I had never had a job before, and I felt like the adults in this facility trusted teenagers to do stuff. I thought, ‘How cool is this place that each of these tasks that I’m helping with is going to help someone?’ It was humbling and exciting. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I wanted to do this all the time.
Several of Becky’s friends felt the same way and wanted to come back again to volunteer. Since none of them were old enough to drive, that meant coordinating with several of the parents to carpool a group of teenagers to Children’s Hunger Fund early on Saturday mornings. Becky and her friends became a consistent volunteer group for a couple of years.
One summer when Becky was in high school, she even had a paid position as a receptionist while the regular receptionist was on temporary leave. Aside from accidentally hanging up on Founder and President Dave Phillips while trying to transfer him (he graciously called back and let her try again), her short time on staff was filled with happy memories of barbecues, basketball games, and getting to know the staff and their families.
Years later, she had the opportunity to return to the Children’s Hunger Fund staff. Becky spent almost five years on the Poverty Encounter team, assisting both with writing some of the curriculum and developing the messaging as well as conducting tours through the exhibit. Poverty Encounter was open for a little over a year before the pandemic hit and tours were suspended.
In addition to her role in developing and facilitating Poverty Encounter’s virtual tours that year, Becky also had the opportunity to be cast in CHF’s Mission Moment videos with Answers VBS, a partnership dating back to 2014. In a series of five videos, Becky took on the role of Harper, a fun-loving adventurer living in the Australian outback, as she introduced the VBS audience to different children who had received food through CHF. She also explained how VBS students could make a difference by collecting coins through Project Coin Pak.
It was really interesting for me to be able to talk about Children’s Hunger Fund but on a much different, broader level. And not just about Children’s Hunger Fund but also teaching children biblical truths how God created them and how God cares for all people and all these things that I want children to hear about. I want my son someday to understand those concepts.
In January 2022, Becky transitioned out of Poverty Encounter and into the Grants department. Along with Senior Vice President Michael Richards, Becky identifies potential grant funders and provides feedback to maintain existing grantor relationships.
My job is a lot of writing. It’s very technical writing, but I do also get to write narratives or do some fun storytelling where I’m sharing what a difference a Food Pak makes in the life of a child or how equipping a church to serve children and families that are impoverished is making a difference.
For Becky, one of the best things about her job is seeing the faces of the children as they receive Food Paks, knowing that the Meal Paks—nutritious, lentil casserole kits—that she sees in those photos were packed downstairs in the Los Angeles Volunteer Center. Her role in Grants also keeps her apprised of up-and-coming projects around the world such as Mercy Centers, pig farms, and garden towers to help with self-sustainability, which is exciting to watch develop and become fruitful.
“Becky wears a lot of hats in her role at CHF,” shared Michael Richards. “Some days, she is required to complete a multitude of tasks that include researching, writing, reporting, formatting, and editing. The most impressive thing to me, though, is she has successfully handled her grant writing and impact reporting responsibilities at a high level, while juggling becoming a new mom!”
Becky and her husband, Nick, welcomed their son, Cyrus in December 2022. She jokingly describes her life as “organized chaos” these days. Between her husband’s remote job, the flexibility of her work schedule, and her parents’ willingness to help, Becky manages to make it work.
The feedback stories coming from church partners around the world hit Becky differently now that she is a mother.
I can empathize in a way that I just never could before. Just knowing that families are trying so hard to make ends meet. It’s staggering. It’s humbling in a way that I couldn’t quite grasp before. Now, as a mother, if I try to imagine myself in that place, is there anything I wouldn’t do to try to take care of my child? There isn’t.
Thankfully, Becky gets to see how local churches around the world are reaching out to deliver food and share the hope of the gospel to those families facing extreme circumstances. Because Becky is constantly on the lookout for feedback to share with grant providers, she is often one of the first people at CHF to be blessed by the feedback as it arrives from our church partners. And Becky has the joy and opportunity of sharing that story with others.
