Help Minnie's MEAT their goal
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PLANO - A non-profit agency that works to help feed needy families across Dallas-Fort Worth is having a major setback and asking for the community’s help.
Workers at Minnie’s Food Pantry arrived to their distribution center in Plano to find a broken industrial freezer and hundreds of packages of spoiled meat, on Wednesday.
"There was blood when we walked in,” the food pantry’s founder, Cheryl Jackson, explained. “There was blood everywhere."
Jackson is disappointed Minnie’s Food Pantry has to shut its doors for several days as workers struggle to deal with freezer repairs and a major cleanup.
“Every package of meat that we had here was ruined," Jackson said while fighting back tears.
About 10 families were already in line to collect food donations before the center’s staff arrived to find the mess. Those clients had to settle with dry goods for the week, since all of the meats had to be thrown out.
"This isn't about one family,” said Jackson, “this is about thousands of people, and I need to get this place fixed so I can open the doors back up."
The food pantry workers and volunteers had to dump hundreds of packages of beef, chicken, turkey, and other meats.
Hundreds of packages of meat had to be thrown away. Watch WFAA News Clip
Lynette Shofner is the food pantry director. She was the first to discover the mess.
“My heart just sunk because I was just thinking this is like $20,000 to $30,000 worth of meat, and it's our service for today,” Shofner said.
The dumped meats were donations that were supposed to go to at least 300 families this week. The items would have been distributed to more than 1,000 people relying on food from Minnie’s Food Pantry throughout this month.
It’s an emotional setback for the staff.
“We worked hard to get that,” Jackson said while crying. “It hurts! It's a lot of people depending on this."
The damage from the freezer also impacted the neighboring office. Workers had to rip out damaged carpet.
Minnie’s Food Pantry is now depending on the community and volunteers to help get through this incident.
"This is my life, and my life is to make sure that people in our community are fed,” Jackson said. “I need somebody to call us and help us."
Late Wednesday afternoon, the food pantry workers said a refrigeration contractor determined the freezer’s compressor had some wiring issues on the rooftop. They say the freezer would be out of service for at least one week. The staff says it expects to resume food distribution services by Wednesday, July 13.
We need commerical carpet replaced and the alk in freezer (Kolpak) torn down, disinfeected and put back together before we can reopen our doors.
Please donate and share this link. ANY donation will help us MEAT our goal of refilling the freezer and serving our neighbors again.
Workers at Minnie’s Food Pantry arrived to their distribution center in Plano to find a broken industrial freezer and hundreds of packages of spoiled meat, on Wednesday.
"There was blood when we walked in,” the food pantry’s founder, Cheryl Jackson, explained. “There was blood everywhere."
Jackson is disappointed Minnie’s Food Pantry has to shut its doors for several days as workers struggle to deal with freezer repairs and a major cleanup.
“Every package of meat that we had here was ruined," Jackson said while fighting back tears.
About 10 families were already in line to collect food donations before the center’s staff arrived to find the mess. Those clients had to settle with dry goods for the week, since all of the meats had to be thrown out.
"This isn't about one family,” said Jackson, “this is about thousands of people, and I need to get this place fixed so I can open the doors back up."
The food pantry workers and volunteers had to dump hundreds of packages of beef, chicken, turkey, and other meats.
Hundreds of packages of meat had to be thrown away. Watch WFAA News Clip
Lynette Shofner is the food pantry director. She was the first to discover the mess.
“My heart just sunk because I was just thinking this is like $20,000 to $30,000 worth of meat, and it's our service for today,” Shofner said.
The dumped meats were donations that were supposed to go to at least 300 families this week. The items would have been distributed to more than 1,000 people relying on food from Minnie’s Food Pantry throughout this month.
It’s an emotional setback for the staff.
“We worked hard to get that,” Jackson said while crying. “It hurts! It's a lot of people depending on this."
The damage from the freezer also impacted the neighboring office. Workers had to rip out damaged carpet.
Minnie’s Food Pantry is now depending on the community and volunteers to help get through this incident.
"This is my life, and my life is to make sure that people in our community are fed,” Jackson said. “I need somebody to call us and help us."
Late Wednesday afternoon, the food pantry workers said a refrigeration contractor determined the freezer’s compressor had some wiring issues on the rooftop. They say the freezer would be out of service for at least one week. The staff says it expects to resume food distribution services by Wednesday, July 13.
We need commerical carpet replaced and the alk in freezer (Kolpak) torn down, disinfeected and put back together before we can reopen our doors.
Please donate and share this link. ANY donation will help us MEAT our goal of refilling the freezer and serving our neighbors again.
Organiser
Cheryl Jackson
Organiser
Plano, TX
