Carol’s Kindness has always had partners to share food with so nothing goes to waste. Some have been one-time partners, others are groups we share with regularly. Some of them are ones we exchange food with, sometimes being the giver and sometimes the receiver. We make sure that the most perishable food goes out to someone while it is still in edible condition. Pumba can only eat so much, and some of the food is not on his diet although he begs for it.
During the early part of the week, some of the food, such as cut fruit, sandwiches, and even dairy products, is regularly given to volunteers who distribute it to the homeless on the streets and in camps. Some of our volunteers take food out, some of it goes to Hard Water a local non-profit. We may supplement the fresh food with sweets and chips, too that we are able to collect.
Carol’s Kindness established an after-school snacks closet at a local low-income apartment complex in the spring. We supply them with healthy snacks, shelf-stable milk, and healthy juices every few weeks to serve the approximately 50 kids there. They were slow to come and take advantage, but now Ms. Busy has a steady stream of kids coming for their snacks. There is no refrigeration so we cannot send fresh fruits and vegetables to them but the fruit rolls and other fruit snacks will have to do. We have added fruit cups and juice to our Amazon registry list.
One of the volunteers who teaches at a Manor HS has taken snacks for those kids. HS kids are always hungry; they could graze for hours and not be full. She helps secure some of the food for outreach and helps us to pack and transport food for our pantry.
We recently partnered with Food Not Bombs who cook a vegan meal every Saturday and send the meals out on the streets to feed the unhoused. We send them lentils, beans and fresh produce to support their efforts.
Some weeks at the pantry, we have quite a lot of food left at the end of the line. Perhaps we got 300 salads for 150 people, or there was just a lot more fruit than people would take home, we have gotten an entire pallet of mangos or other. We do not want to waste so we pack up this beautiful food and have volunteers take boxes to one of the ATXFreeFridges. These are located around town and are open 24/7 so that people can come and leave food or take food as needed. A couple of years ago, one of the members of the AXFreeFridge group supplied us with freezer space before we bought ours. We also take bread only to the Little Free Pantry on Rundberg as she has no fridge.
We have also been able to use some of the food most weeks to make a meal for the Charlie Center who serves 3 days a week. Each meal pan feeds around 20 people. We also send them wrapped silverware packs, disposable meal containers and occasional other donations we cannot distribute.