September 23, 2021
Let's Kick Off Hunger Free Holidays with a Little Blue Barrel!
The Little Blue Barrel is HERE!

Hi, I am Rita, the Community Engagement Manager at The Caring Place. Today, I want to introduce you to a new program benefiting The Caring Place Food Pantry: Little Blue Barrel

As many of you know, COVID-19 has impacted our programs in unexpected ways. One of the most noticeable changes around here is that we serve food to families in need through our drive through only. This safer process has completely changed how we utilize the drive through and our storage space throughout the warehouse. We are proud to say, we have made it work, and food has remained available for families throughout the pandemic.

How did we make it work? We buy food in bulk when we need it from the Central Texas Food Bank. This allows us to efficiently distribute food up to three times a week in the drive through, while still ensuring we have space and staffing for other critical operations at The Caring Place. This change, which was implemented in March of 2020, has required us to temporarily stop taking food donations. However, YOUR HELP IS STILL CRITICAL! Your monetary donations to the Food Pantry are keeping food available to anyone in need throughout the year. In fact, monetary donations allow us to provide exponentially more food than physical can donations. Let me show you how...
As you can see from that image, The Caring Place can buy a lot with the funds you give us for the Food Pantry! In 2020, we were able to purchase 14 pounds of food per dollar we receive.

Historically, the holiday season is when The Caring Place receives the most canned food donations for our Food Pantry. Each year we hold "Hunger Free Holidays" Food Drives across the community October 1st through December 31st. YOU donate hundreds of thousands of pounds of food during this campaign. It's remarkable what our community does during that three month campaign each year. With altered storage space this year, we are asking that you continue to exclusively give monetary donations to the Hunger Free Holidays campaign. AND if you are one of those amazing friends, neighbors, organizations or businesses that love planning huge Food Drives during the holiday season, we ask that you consider borrowing a "Little Blue Barrel" and plan a monetary Food Drive! This barrel takes up a fraction of the space as our Big Blue Barrels for Food Drives and the monetary donations inside provide an impactful punch!

Together, we can still make a difference to those who have been impacted by COVID-19, job losses, ice storms, hurricanes and whatever else comes our way in 2022! The Caring Place is committed to providing for the basic human needs of all people in our community in a welcoming, respectful and caring way. With the Little Blue Barrel program, you can be part of that mission.

Would you like to learn how it works? Visit our website at caringplacetx.org/bluebarrel. You can find the program guidelines there.

Ready to borrow a Little Blue Barrel and start collecting donations for The Caring Place Food Pantry? Contact Rita at rturner@caringplacetx.org or 512-943-0702.

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Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
- Helen Keller
The Caring Place | www.caringplacetx.org