Check Out Alex Duvall’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Duvall.

Hi Alex, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I (Alex) met Matt Hakes in a classroom at Blue Springs High School. We cotaught together for a couple of years and quickly developed a great relationship. We joked about how cool it would be to open a food truck one day when we were retired. The idea was that we would provide food completely free of charge that anyone who needed it and collect donations from anyone who felt inclined. Both Matt and I are deeply committed to our faith and felt that this would be a great way to “walk the walk” so-to-speak.

Well, last summer we were on vacation with our families, and we were sitting around a campfire one night when the food truck idea came up again. Matt posed the question, “What’s stopping us from doing something right now?” Neither of us or our wives could come up with a good answer, so that July “Many Parts, One Body” was born. Since August of 2024 we have served over 4,000 free meals to folks in need in our community and have thousands more meals already planned to be served in 2025. All of it has been sponsored by members of our community who have made a commitment to helping provide for their neighbors.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t necessarily been all sunshine and rainbows, but we have been incredibly blessed so far. Our community has rallied around efforts and made possible all of the work that we’ve been doing. We lost a smoker (and almost my deck) preparing for our second ever event last August. We haven’t had any major mistakes or anything crazy, but we joke all the time about how much we didn’t know that we didn’t know when it comes to (legally) serving food to folks in the public realm. We’re learning as we go, but we’ve had a great support system helping us along the way.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I (Alex) am a teacher at Blue Springs High School where I also coach baseball. Hannah (my wife) stays home with our two beautiful children which truly makes all of this possible. We couldn’t do any of this if she hadn’t given up her career to stay home and raise our babies. I absolutely love teaching. I love getting to spend time with the high school kids every day and watching them grow and learn every day. I played baseball for a lot of good coaches growing up, so getting to reinvest what I learned back into our players every spring has been a lot of fun as well.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I’ve lived in Blue Springs my entire life. I love our city. I think my favorite part about Blue Springs is that even though it’s grown substantially over the last 40 years, it still has a small town feel to it. Every time Many Parts, One Body has reached out to the community for help, people have stepped forward. Our high schools are the two biggest public schools in the state of Missouri, yet it still feels like all the kids know each other and care for each other.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.manypartsonebody.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manyparts_onebody
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561433674012