Irving Cares

Today I was blessed with the opportunity to volunteer at Irving Cares with several co-​workers. I didn’t know what to expect, and I can tell you it exceeded my expectations.
Irving Cares was founded in 1957 to provide relief for Irving residents down on their luck. It is not considered a place to give constant handouts, but temporary help to get back on their feet. Irving Cares provides all of the basics a person will need to provide for the family. It is located in the Human Services building in South Irving. It serves THOUSANDS of families that are in need. The area I volunteered today was the «grocery» department.
Kyle, an employee there, is in charge of volunteers and gave us a brief tour through the facility and history of the services. We then got busy with organizing canned food that had been donated. In the storage area, there are aisles of various foods, donated by Irving residents and grocery stores. It was so touching to see how much others care.
Something I really liked was that families can come in for donations of food and toiletries a few times per year. This place knows how to motivate them… it is not a permanent hand-​out, but a means to get through the rough times. A family fills out the necessary forms, and the volunteers get busy «shopping» with their carts, bagging up the groceries that are allotted to each individual in the family.
Irving Cares also provides assistance for occasional rent and other expenses, employment placements, income tax preps, and language classes. In other words, it gives people their pride back that is lost during the low times of life.
For any one interested in helping, the pantry is always in need of food. Something they are really desperate for right now is toiletries, especially toilet paper, shampoo/​conditioner, and soap. No one wants, or deserves, to be dirty, especially children.