The Caring Place in Georgetown, Texas, was the hub for multiple local non-profit food pantries to restock a few shelves with items from Salt Lake City, donated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A well-organized list detailed how the 22 tidy, massive pallets of food would be divided and distributed to go to Salvation Army, Round Rock Serving Center, Helping Hands, Shepherd’s Heart, Love Serve Feed, Circle of Hope and The Caring Place.
Volunteers from the Church’s Round Rock Texas East Stake showed up to help outdoors, behind the facility, on June 29, with temperatures in the upper 90s, to orchestrate the task of divvying up case after case of beef stew, chili, corn, diced tomatoes, cream of chicken soup, applesauce, pears, spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, salsa, chocolate and yellow cake mix, flour, macaroni and cheese, ribbon pasta, rice, spaghetti, milk, powdered milk, liquid dish soap and laundry detergent.
Here is a Q and A by Sydney Decker, who was on the scene to interview some of the roughly 60 volunteers.
Elder Jaden Shumway, from Logan, Utah
Q: What brought you out here today?
A: A really big thing that our church believes in is service because Jesus Christ served us all. We feel that we can be of service too, to our fellow people here in Georgetown, so we thought we would come out and serve out of love, because we love the people here.
Q: What kind of things have you been doing today?
A: We’ve just been moving boxes over to pallets, then this guy with a forklift comes and picks up the pallets and takes them to the place where they need to go.
Q: You work in the community every day with a wide variety of people, so can you talk about what this gift to the community means for the people you serve?
A: I know at the Salvation Army, we do a lot of volunteer work there, and they use the food that they get to help other families. I know if I was struggling with food in my family, I would want some help, so I think it’s great that the Georgetown community is helping out in this time of need.
Avery Jensen, youth
Q: What has it been like helping with food distribution? What things have you been doing?
A: We’ve just been moving a bunch of boxes basically. I stayed mainly by the salsa. You then help out with people all around you. There are a lot of nice people to help if they see that you’re struggling. It’s been good, kind of hot.
Q: How has it made you feel, knowing that you’re helping to distribute food that’s going to local non-profits for people in need?
A: It makes me feel like I’m doing something good for the community, which makes me feel really great.
Rob Nielson
Q: What has it been like today? What kind of things have you been doing?
A: (Laughs) Sweating. My wife and I, and daughter, have just been moving boxes.
Q: How has it made you feel as you’ve been sorting this different food for these local non-profits?
A: It’s cool, because my wife and I were just in Salt Lake City and took a little tour of Welfare Square and we watched them canning spaghetti sauce. My wife is a convert to the church for about seven years now and it was nice for her to be able to see.
Valarie Nielson
Q: Describe what you have been doing today.
A: Today we have been moving crates of the food onto pallets so we can get them onto trucks to go to their various destinations.
Q: Rob was just saying that you’ve been in Salt Lake City, where they may have been loading the spaghetti sauce cans that you might have seen packaged (chuckles).
A: Yes, he took me to Welfare Square. I had never been there. It was amazing. We got to take a little peek inside. I had seen so many documentaries made, and we got to see the process of all this happening. It’s really great to come back and see this project. It brings it full circle. We already talked about how we will have a family council about this to explain how our tithing goes to help other people.
Q: What has it been like as you have been lifting, loading and sorting?
A: It brings a great sense of joy and makes me want to sign up for the next project. It’s very exciting to see everyone helping and coming together. I love it. I love being part of such a great service project.
Allyson Didlake
Q: What brings you out here today?
A: We were asked to volunteer here at The Caring Place, food that was donated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to distribute to other non-profits to help those that are in need. I brought five of my six kids. We’re loading up pallets and hoping that it gets to where it needs to go.
Q: So this has been a big family day for you. Everyone’s been on board. What’s it been like for your family to be part of this community effort?
A: It’s been really good. I have a 6-year-old here and he didn’t quite understand. I was able to explain that not everybody during the inflation and pandemic has been able to have jobs and work and be able to provide food for their family. This is a way that we can all help out. It’s really helped them understand first hand how we can come together as a community, all walks of life.
Q: As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, how does this help increase your faith?
A: Coming together as a community increases my faith because I realize that there are more than just one. I love that we can serve because this is the way that God intended it. Our Savior served others and I love being able to do that, and it increases my faith.
Eric Shuster, stake high council member
Q: Kind of describe what’s happening here today.
A: We’ve got a community in need and we have a church of abundance — not only in the gospel, but abundance of temporal goods. It’s a perfect marriage. We found out that if we could identify the needs, Salt Lake City could fulfill them.
We raised our hand and said, we have a lot of local charities that we are involved with and understand their needs. We communicated with Salt Lake and said if you can send a truck, we can get it to them. The wheels started rolling, the machine started going. It has been fantastic. We’ve got probably 60 volunteers here today. Once the word spread that we had this coming, everybody just joined in.
Q: What’s it been like for you to see this unfold since you have been part of the process?
A: We are involved with a charity in Taylor. As we go there on Saturdays and see people come through, we recognize that sometimes those inventories go really low and sometimes there’s a little bit more. To see the faces of those who are getting the food — we have The Caring Place, Love Serve Feed, and others, this is like a miracle to them. Like they’re saying “we needed this, and this was the time we needed it.” It fills my heart full of joy to see that.
Q: What has this done to help strengthen your testimony of the Savior?
A: As we do Come Follow Me, we speak of Christ, we talk of Christ and we recognize that the work He did is the same that we can do today. He said, “You will do great things.” He was speaking to his apostles, but we know that also pertains to us. This is a great thing. It glorifies Christ, so that strengthens my testimony.
Q: What’s been the response from local non-profits, knowing they’re receiving this abundance today?
A: Most have been gracious and have said, “My goodness, this is exactly what we need.” We have also interestingly enough seen non-profits say they are not interested. We recognize those kinds of feelings, but hearts are being softened.
We just have to be patient. We’re not here to convert. What we’re here to to do is to serve in the community and hope to have all be a part of it.
Those who are accepting the food are extremely gracious and grateful. Those who may be saying, “not now,” I think they’re looking from a distance wondering, “what’s this all about?” What we are saying to them is “come and see.”
Chas Winckel, founder of Love Serve Feed
Q: Where are you located?
A: We work with the Round Rock school district — we have a location that we feed people every Saturday at Hernandez Middle School. Free meal.
Q: Talk about what your mission is and how this donation today helps accomplish it?
A: Our whole mission is to get the church outside of the walls, to come out and meet people where they are, find out what they need. We have done that and feed somewhere between 350 and 500 hot meals every Saturday. We feed senior citizens and single moms on Sunday. We’ve done that since November of 2012. We’ve never missed a weekend, rain or shine, and it’s outside. We pull our trailer up, pull the grills out. We have about 300 volunteers on a regular basis that come help, and normally we have about 25 to 40 volunteers every week. As we do this, we’re not here to judge them. They come from all walks of life. We’re there just to serve. Love, serve, feed. That’s what we do.
Q: How does this help strengthen your faith?
A: This is the community coming together. This is what God put us here to do. My wife and I both have full-time jobs. I’m a contractor and she’s a vocal coach. This is what we do on weekends, every weekend. On Saturdays and Sundays, we’re out feeding the community and doing the things that God’s called us to do.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A: This is phenomenal because we are in changing times. We have been very consistent and been able to serve a hamburger and a hot dog meal. When we started out in 2012, that meal was for less than a dollar. Now it costs us over $2, so when something like this comes along, that gives us the ability to even reach out farther.
PHOTOS/Amanda Ondricek