Friday, May 17, 2024
AZLE — When it comes to caring, Azle punches above its weight.
Leadership at Azle’s Community Caring Center received a big, but welcomed, surprise April 18. Amid historic need and a major expansion project, the center received one of its largest donations to date, approximately 14,517 pounds of food from Azle’s own Albertsons grocery store.
From mid-January to mid-February, Albertsons, Tom Thumb, Vons and other affiliated stores participate in Nourishing Neighbors, a yearly drive to raise funds and food for food banks around the country. Last year, the initiative raised over $40 million. The grocery conglomerate hopes to enable the donation of one billion meals by 2030.
According to the store’s manager, Brian Meason, Azle’s Albertsons was ranked first in its district and third in the nation in the amount of donations it raised for its Nourishing Neighbors program.
“Last Thursday we got a call from Leann who works in the back, and she said ‘your order is ready’ and we were thinking, ‘what order, we didn’t place an order?’ So, she had to remind us what it was from and we were shocked,” CCC Director Kristie Cooper said. “She hasn’t seen this much food and we’ve never seen this much food in my time here. The amount that was raised is a significant increase from the past. It was essential things that we were lacking — canned goods, a lot of dried beans, macaroni and cheese. So, definitely things that we need. For us it was such a shock. We had no idea it would be this much. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Our pantry supplies are really low and Tarrant Area Food Bank supplies are down. They supply about 50% of our food. (Albertsons does) this every year. Normally it’s still a great benefit and a great help but the community really committed this year or donated more, and it just made a huge difference. Our numbers are just growing so fast. It’s hard to keep enough food. So, we just need that steady supply of food and that increased food. Right now, we are completely out of cereal. We purchased two really large pallets of cereal last month and we’ve already depleted that supply.”
Albertsons raises the funds for this food by offering customers a $5 paper bag at the end of their transaction and informing them that proceeds go toward stocking the CCC. The Azle location collected nearly $15,000 in bag sales or 3,000 bags which equated to eight full pallets of food.
The store’s manager said the Azle community deserves most of the credit.
“It’s a win-win deal because in most of our metroplex stores, the food goes to the North Tarrant County Food Bank,” Meason said. “In this case it stays right here in our own community, right here in our own backyard. We appreciate the community because they’re really the ones that did it. We just asked everybody and pushed it. It just shows you how the community works together. Everyone is pretty open if it’s explained in the right way. I always try to do my best to help anyone in need. We’ve all been there, and everyone’s got family members or friends or whatnot and it’s a tough economy right now. It was a total store effort. Bojana (Petrovich), the front-end manager, drove the event. If anything, I’d probably give a shout out to her because she’s the one that kind of ran with it. I just want to thank the community because at the end of the day they are really the ones that donated. We just ran the event and did the collection and that kind of thing. We appreciate everything the community did and look forward to doing it next year.”
Along with the massive Nourishing Neighbors donation, the CCC has received support via monetary donations as well. Azle’s “Lunch Bunch” a group of neighbor ladies who meet for a meal each month to celebrate their birthdays donated $1,000 to the center not long after Cooper and company received the donation from Albertsons. Fort Worth Southwest Christian School students also awarded $4,000 for the organization after presenting against other student volunteer groups for the grant. The CCC on 317 Commerce St. is Azle’s largest food bank. The center is open Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 9a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and on Thursday from 4 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Individuals can learn more, volunteer or donate at https://communitycaringcenter.com/.
