Q: What are some of the biggest needs the Caring Center
helps fulfill each year? Who are you helping the most?
We get the busiest in the summer months, when tourist
season is over. Children are out of school, not getting free
breakfast and lunch, and parents often see their income
reduced and have higher expenses. We never want a child
to know hunger, so we give extra food during the summer
months. We call this program Healthy-not-Hungry Kids
Bags and it is a bag of food that is kid-friendly, as healthy
as possible, and will feed a child for about a week. We
distribute these bags in June, July, and August while school
is out of session, and each child can receive a bag. Last year,
we distributed 1,800 H-n-H Kids Bags.
We are also seeing a significant uptick in our senior
population. They are coming for food and other assistance.
This is mainly because of the cost of living in our area. They
are on a fixed income, but rental costs have skyrocketed.
We do not want our elderly population to go hungry, so we
are glad they are coming here for assistance.
Q: What kind of volunteer opportunities are there for
our members who may want to get involved? How else
can they help the Caring Center?
We are always looking for people to do food drives for us.
We never turn qualified people away even when we do not
have a lot of food. I always say the lack of food is the food
pantry’s problem, not the family’s problem, so everyone will
be leaving with food the day they are here and if we are
wiped out at the end of the day, we will figure out how to
get more the next day. We will have periodic food truck
events and we need lots of volunteers for that. The next one
will be sometime in September. We can also use volunteers
for our backpack event, which will be August 6th.
Q: How does your organization work with other
organizations in the community?
We partner with Harry Chapin Food Bank and Midwest
Food Bank. Receiving food from them helps us give food
more generously. Midwest Food Bank in coordination with
the Gunterberg Charitable Foundation provides food truck
events, to help us help more people. We are also actively
partnering with Goodwill Industries. They will be using our
building to conduct credit counseling classes and Job Link.
We know that helping people handle finances and helping
them get jobs are some of the best ways to get people back
on their feet. We also work with the City of Cape Coral for
a grant from HUD (CDBG), and United Way for a grant from
FEMA.
Q: As the chosen charity for the Association this year,
how will the funds raised for the Cape Coral Caring
Center be used to help the community?
We are so honored to be the Association’s chosen charity
for the year. The funds will be used first of all to make sure
no qualified person ha s to know hunger. We receive many
thank you notes from clients saying things such as, ‘I never
in my life thought I would have to come to a place like
yours, but I had no choice, we had no food, or my electric
was about to be turned off.’ They express appreciation for
treating them with such kindness, care, and smiles. We have
rules, but our first rule is the Golden Rule, we treat people
how we would want to be treated if we were in need. The
funds will be used to buy good healthy food and pay utility
bills when qualified clients are threatened with shut-off. We
will purchase 31-day bus passes for people who are looking
for work. We will also keep in stock food for people with
special dietary needs, such as people with renal or heart
disease. We recently helped a client that was on dialysis, she
was so overwhelmed, she cried and we cried. We will use
the funds to make sure all our clients have a Thanksgiving
and Christmas Dinner and our children get presents from
Santa Claus. The goal of the Cape Coral Caring Center is to
have a happy, healthy community.
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If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer, or have
donations you would like to give to the Cape Coral Caring
Center, visit their website: CapeCoralCaringCenter.com.
There, you will find all the ways to help and how to become
a volunteer.
RPCRA.ORG | JUL/AUG 2018
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