What a day we had on Saturday, April 13! The Vickery Meadow Food Pantry and Clothes Closet enjoyed great help from a group of Walmart volunteers from the Walmart store located less than 3 miles away on Retail Road led by their manager Tony Budgewater. Thank you, Tony, Lydia, Tiffany, Maria, Liccy, Sandro, and Afi! Y’all were terrific.
The morning began with a brief introduction to the pantry by our Saturday Day Leader, Jerry Danis. Next, they wasted no time in getting to work. Our Walmart volunteers jumped into action making pantry bags full of high quality items such as canned chicken, rice, beans, pasta, pasta sauce, raisins and an assortment of other canned goods, vegetable bags full of potatoes, produce bags packed with apples, and bags of greens, herbs, and tomatoes fresh from Temple Emanu-El’s garden, Lake Highlands Community Garden and NorthPark Presbyterian’s hydroponic nursery.
After all the bagging was completed, two volunteers who are fluent in Spanish, Liccy and Maria helped at the intake window and the new neighbor registration. And to our delight, we found out that Lydia spoke Arabic. She was soon working with Maria at the intake door helping translate questions for our Sudanese neighbors, who spoke only Arabic. Afi very carefully sorted our potatoes and prepared produce bags. Tiffany helped backfill what was needed at the distribution door as well as expertly figured out our daily count and Sandro provided frozen produce to our neighbors.
Tony distributed milk and eggs to our neighbors, but was soon pulled from that job when Jerry found out how handy he was! Jerry asked him to assemble a new stainless-steel table that had sat in the back of the pantry for a few days for lack of time to put it together. Thank you, Tony! He assembled it in no time.
It was a great morning to have our Walmart friends at the pantry not only because of their willingness to do anything that was asked of them, but because of their kindness, generosity, and the smiles that they had for all those they encountered. There is great joy to be had in helping others. We appreciate the help they provided our neighbors of the Greater Vickery Meadow Area of Dallas.