I am so proud to be a part of this organization and managing the pantry operation every Saturday at Gus Garcia Rec center on Rundberg.
Carol’s Kindness+ is AMAZING and keeps on finding food and Kindness to share. Last week we emptied all of our fridges and freezers and crossed our fingers that the new week would fill things back up. The new triple fridge was not working well enough for most foods but we finally found a repair person to come and fix it. We had been told it was working fine when we bought it on Marketplace. We will be able to keep lots more produce and even milk during the week to give out on Saturday now.
Food uncertainty, the cold weather, and our being available on Saturday are bringing in more people every week. We hit a high of 216 signed in 2 weeks ago and actually gave out the very last of the food on hand. More was in storage but having people wait long past our closing time of 1PM to get more just did not work out. We are seeing 40-80 more people signing in every week than last fall, lots more households with kids than even in the summer and many more unhoused. So many tell me they are picking up for a neighbor or those who cannot come to the pantry.
We had enough food for all again this week. We had a good supply of staples: cereal, flour, sugar, macaroni, rice, beans, and canned goods. We had plenty of variety on our specials table with dried fruit, coffee, snack and gum. This week we had lots of pizzas, sandwiches, eggs, meat, milk, and frozen meals. We are so thankful for the generous donations from Sprouts, Target, the Canteen, Costco, and our neighbors.
The glue that holds our operation together is our volunteers, many of them are also clients seeking food each week. They give up 2-4 hours or more most Saturdays to carry, sort, arrange and give out food. They transport the food stored at Carol’s home, set up tables and take them down. They carry coolers and crates back and forth filled with food. They cheerfully serve the clients, helping them to find the foods they want to put into their bags. We allow people to make their own selections of foods to give them a choice in what they and their households will eat from what we have.
We had very little left at the end of the day: 3 milk crates of canned goods, 2 boxes of flour (25#?), 1 milk crate dry beans, and some coffee pods. We were able to send food with Valerie to the Dove springs free fridge near her home. We sent 4-5 boxes of sweets (thanks to Jeff & George) to the Saturday homeless mission under the bridge at 8th IH35 and during the week we sent food to free fridges and outreach to our unhoused neighbors.
Thanks to Elias for grinding large bags of coffee to send to the Charlie center. Every week we are still able to supply a meal for 20 for the unhoused on Tuesday. It was an egg and potatoes casserole so we were glad to be able to supply it from donations. 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.
The freezing weather is hard on lots of people with little to no shelter. Carol’s Kindness continues to help support some of this effort through Austin Mutual Aid at a warming center at St Mark’s Church and community outreach. There are 1000s of unhoused persons in Austin and available shelter for only 10-15% when the temperature drops to less than 34degrees overnight. The stories of people huddling under a thin blanket on wet ground are ones no one wants to hear.
Pantry stats 2/15
Total signed in 170
Total household served 555 (200+more than a few weeks ago)
Total seniors served 74
Total kids served 164 (almost double a few weeks ago)
Total unhoused served 102 (almost double a few weeks ago)
Total Volunteers 57 many shifts
Total food salvaged/ donated this year 32,266 pounds!!