The ongoing government shutdown, now more than a month long, is leaving millions of Americans struggling to pay bills and put food on the table. Here in the Coastal Bend, local nonprofits are stepping up to meet the growing demand.<\/p>\n
One of those is The Free Store, a grassroots organization founded by Marilena Garza. What started as a small community outreach program for clothing and shoes has now become a lifeline for hundreds of families.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, my nonprofit\u2019s focus was clothing and shoes particularly,\u201d Garza said. \u201cWe had to pick up food just because of the need. The need was staring us in the face saying, \u2018Hey, thanks for the shoes, but I haven\u2019t eaten in two days.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Garza said her organization has seen a nearly 40% increase in requests for help since the shutdown began. Many of those coming for food, clothing, and hygiene items are new faces, people who\u2019ve never had to ask for help before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Coastal Bend is hurting very, very bad,\u201d Garza said. \u201cWe are not buckling, not just from the underfunding, but also the increase in the demand. But we\u2019re going to try \u2014 we\u2019re not going to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garza describes the Free Store as a \u201ccommunity hub,\u201d a place where people can not only pick up food and supplies, but also connect with others who understand their struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere at The Free Store, kindness makes a difference,\u201d Garza said. \u201cReaching out to someone and saying, \u2018What else do you need?\u2019 goes a long way. It could be food, hygiene, clothing, or even connecting them with another nonprofit that offers medical or mental health help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even before the shutdown, Garza said the community was already seeing rising poverty rates, driven by the cost of living, job shortages, and inflation. Those challenges have only intensified.<\/p>\n
She added that smaller, local organizations like hers are facing mounting pressure to keep up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelp small, help local,\u201d Garza urged. “Us smaller nonprofits are having to compete against these multi-billion dollar corporations, and we just can\u2019t compete with that kind of infrastructure. But we\u2019re the ones actually out in the community, seeing the people, hearing their stories, and building relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
This Thanksgiving, Garza is channeling that community spirit into a major event, a free Thanksgiving meal and resource event. At the event, the Free Store will also connect people to medical, dental, and mental health services, as well as resources for substance abuse and domestic violence support. <\/p>\n
The Free Store plans to feed more than 200 people on November 23 at 1 p.m. at Elevate 361, located at 3015 Morgan Avenue. <\/p>\n
Garza said community donations have already covered most of the food, but the organization still needs monetary donations to cover supplies, transportation, and ongoing outreach efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can\u2019t donate money, donate your time,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t volunteer, spread the word. Let people know there\u2019s help out there. Nobody should be digging in the trash for food when we have a community that cares.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn how to donate or volunteer with The Free Store, head to the nonprofit’s social media page<\/a>. <\/p>\n For the latest local news updates, click here<\/a>, or download the KRIS 6 News App.<\/a>
Catch all the KRIS 6 News stories and more on our YouTube page<\/a>. Subscribe today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ongoing government shutdown, now more than a month long, is leaving millions of Americans struggling to pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2342,1085,155,157,156,12119,1856,49,22664,1857,22665,4250,15169],"class_list":["post-35601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-alexis-scott","tag-bay-area-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-donations","tag-federal-workers","tag-food","tag-free-store","tag-government-shutdown","tag-marilena-garza","tag-snap-benefits","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}