Bowling for a Cause to Support The James II Project’s Growing Work Across Jefferson County
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — For The James II Project, a weekly community meal is about much more than putting food on a plate.
It can be a place for someone who is lonely to find friends. It can help a family stretch its grocery budget a little further. It can connect someone without stable housing to transportation, identification, treatment, or a path toward stable housing.
And sometimes, it is simply a place where someone knows they are welcome.
On Sunday, August 30, The James II Project will bring that same spirit of community to Concord Bowl for Bowling for a Cause, a family-friendly fundraiser designed to help support the growing number of people the organization serves each week.
The event will run from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Concord Bowl, 11801 Tesson Ferry Road, St. Louis, Missouri 63128.
Tickets are $30 per person, or participants can reserve a lane for up to six bowlers for $160. The afternoon will also include 50/50 raffles, bowling, food, and an opportunity to learn more about the work The James II Project is doing throughout the area.
Founder and Executive Director Karin Kostich said the organization wanted to create a fundraiser that families could enjoy together.
“We wanted to do something that was family friendly as a fundraiser,” Kostich said.
Rather than another formal fundraising event, Bowling for a Cause offers supporters a chance to spend an afternoon together while helping fund work that happens throughout the year.
A Family Meal
The James II Project currently serves approximately 150 to 175 community members each week through meals in Arnold, Festus, and High Ridge.
There is no registration, qualification process, or payment required to participate in a community meal.
Everyone is invited.
That open-door philosophy has created something Kostich says can be difficult to understand until someone experiences one of the meals firsthand.
Around the tables are older adults looking for companionship, families trying to make their grocery budgets reach a little further, individuals navigating housing instability, people with developmental disabilities enjoying an opportunity to socialize, and community members who simply appreciate sitting down to eat with others.
For some, the meal becomes a regular gathering place and a source of friendship.
For others, it becomes their first connection to additional help.
The organization provides roughly 10,000 meals each year, not including larger special meals around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Kostich said a typical community meal now costs approximately $175 to $200 to prepare.
Karin, the board, and the volunteers want the people who come to the meals to receive the same kind of meal volunteers would be proud to serve in their own homes, including protein and filling foods prepared with care.
Connecting People to the Next Step
The work of The James II Project also extends far beyond its meals.
Kostich said one of the organization’s most important roles has become listening to the circumstances someone is facing and then helping connect that person with the resource that can move them forward.
That assistance can look different for every person.
Funds have helped purchase bus tickets so someone can reach a place where housing is available. The organization has helped with apartment application fees, partnered with other community organizations to provide temporary hotel stays, and assisted people working to enter treatment or transitional housing programs.
The James II Project has also helped connect people with identification, transportation, bicycles for employment, and other practical resources that can become significant barriers when someone is trying to regain stability.
That means fundraising events such as Bowling for a Cause can quickly translate into food, transportation, housing assistance, treatment opportunities, and other direct support.
Kostich said the partnerships The James II Project has developed throughout the community have become an important part of that work.
Rather than attempting to provide every service itself, the organization has worked to develop a network of churches, nonprofits, agencies, volunteers, businesses, and community members who can help connect people with the right resource at the right time.
A Community Helping Its Neighbors
For Kostich, seeing people rally around the organization continues to be humbling.
The phone calls and situations she encounters can be difficult. Families and individuals often come to The James II Project during some of the most challenging moments of their lives.
At the same time, Kostich said the support from volunteers, donors, businesses, and other community organizations has continued to grow.
That support allows the organization to keep answering those calls.
It also helps create the kind of environment Kostich hoped The James II Project could provide, one where someone can walk into a meal without having to explain why they are there before being welcomed to the table.
Bowling for a Cause offers the community another opportunity to become part of that work.
For a few hours on August 30, the focus will be bowling, pizza, laughter, friendly competition, raffles, and spending time together.
The money raised that afternoon will continue working long after the final frame is finished.
It will help put meals on tables across Jefferson County. It will help connect neighbors with resources. It will help provide practical assistance when a relatively small expense is standing between someone and their next step.
Most importantly, it will help The James II Project continue creating a place where anyone who walks through the door can know there is a seat for them.
Bowling for a Cause
Sunday, August 30, 2026
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Concord Bowl
11801 Tesson Ferry Road
St. Louis, MO 63128
$30 per person
$160 per lane for up to six bowlers
The event will include bowling and 50/50 raffles, with proceeds benefiting the meals, services, assistance, and community care provided through The James II Project.
Tickets are available through TheJamesIIProject.com. Participants can also register at the event.
Every week, The James II Project welcomes neighbors across our community to the table while helping connect people with food, transportation, housing resources, treatment opportunities, and other practical support. Bowling for a Cause is one more way Jefferson County families can come alongside that work.
Learn more about The James II Project, purchase tickets for Bowling for a Cause, or find another way to support its work in our community.
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