It goes without saying that veterinarians, technicians, and animal lovers are some of the most compassionate people on earth. So, when our team at the Animal Hospital of Mebane learned about a community need, our hearts were moved to help. We asked our clients and AHOM family, our pharmaceutical representatives, and Southern Animal Hospital to join us as we collected snack and food items for Garrett Elementary School.
In Alamance County alone, 14% of children are food insecure. That means that 14% of children in our community are not sure where their next meal is coming from. Ambraya Timmons, the social worker at Garrett Elementary, and her social worker team decided to do something about this. They started a program to help feed the students by sending home backpacks of food. The program evolved as the students felt singled out when they got a backpack and other students wanted to know why they didn’t get a backpack, as well. The social worker team decided it was best if they partnered with the family as a whole, as opposed to just individual students. This is when the food pantry was started.
Garrett Elementary now feeds around 20 families through their food pantry program. Families in-need are able to come pick-up a box of food each month. If the family is not able to pick up the food, the social workers will even deliver the food to their home when needed. If more food is requested, Garrett Elementary is able to distribute more often than once monthly.
Once again, when we shared the need, you were quick to respond. Because of your generosity, we needed to do three separate food deliveries to keep up with the donations. Miss. Timmons was blown away at how much food we were able to donate. She said the families are always so grateful and the smiles on the kids’ faces make it all worth it. Thank you, again, for supporting our community and stay tuned as we gear up to collect school supplies!