

Musings from the pantry manager at Carol’s Kindness Plus
Oh wow the cold brought out so many people to our pantry Saturday. We are having a big surge in people with kids-school being out for a holiday or snow/cold day means no meals at school for the kids. So many multi-generational families with grandparents coming to get food for the whole group.
We are also seeing so many coming from other pantries that had little to no food.. We also see a lot of people living on the streets or in camps tucked away somewhere. They come to us because we keep a bin of foods that do not need refrigeration like PB, protein bars, soups and canned tuna. End of Saturday that went to any attendee. There is enough to replenish so far.
We also responded to the call for food for the warming shelters and street missions this week so boxes of food and meats went there too. It is never enough though. We are so proud to do this and be able to support those who ask.
We were blessed with individual meals, desserts, fruit, cereal, and lots of snack foods. We too, fianally ran out of what we had on-site serving 178 people. Usually we see around 135 clients each Saturday. They just kept coming long after our closing time of 1pm. We kept signing them in and letting them shop until almost 1:45 when all that was left was a crate of canned goods-carrots and green beans mostly and a few saltine crackers.
I am struggling to figure out how to plan for next Saturday. We do have frozen meat and snacks, some canned soups, and cereal. We are not sure about our fresh donations this week. 180 is a strain only on planning. They were so quiet while they waited. They were hopeful. I do not want to run out of food this week.
We are so grateful to Sprouts Farmer’s Market, Target, Costco, Lone Star Market, the Charlie Center, and the Canteen for their generous donations of food and the other organizations and people in the community who give food to Carol’s Kindness to share with the community.


Stats 1/18/25
Total signed in 178
Household members served 561
Total Seniors served 62
Total kids served 158
Total Unhoused served 90
Total volunteers 60 (includes multiple times during week!)
Food Salvaged this month so far 15,100 Pounds
Trips to free fridges 8-9
Donations to other org 4-5