Dollar General

Well, we just have to tell you about the most extraordinary thing. We are always in the market for underwear and socks for the many people our partner agencies serve who routinely go without those necessities. Most people don’t understand that food stamps are only good for food. No shampoo, no diapers, no laundry detergent. And no socks or underwear.

So our good friends at Dollar General provide us with those basics from time to time. A few weeks ago, we got a call to go to the Dollar General display store to pick up undies and, they said, there were a few other things we might like to have.

So Betsy and I head to the store and are greeted by the nicest guys, Doug and Jason, who look around an area set up like a Dollar General store and say, “Take what you need.”  I am starting to have heart palpitations. This is unbelievable. We’re going to need a few more boxes.

So here’s just a portion of the CRC warehouse loaded with Dollar General goodies for our partners. It took Betsy and I five hours to hoover out the Dollar General store and then a few days with volunteer help to sort it all. We loved every single minute of it.

So who gets all this fabulous stuff? More than 80 nonprofits that partner with the Community Resource Center on behalf of their clients. And I’d like to show you a few of them.

This is Preston in the green shirt. He runs a nonprofit, Welcome Home Ministries, that helps ex-offenders become productive members of society again. He’s always looking for clothes his guys can wear to job interviews and we hooked him up with brand new Dollar General men’s shirts. The fella in the yellow shirt is David from Youth Encouragement Services, which runs three youth centers for kids up to age 18. The centers keep kids off the street after school, on weekends and on summer vacations.  David is always in need of everything, from cleaning supplies to clothes for his kids. Without us, he’d have to spend money from his program budget.

The woman in white is Della from the Mental Health Cooperative. Her agency serves more than 5,000 people with persistent mental illness.  In February, when we had that brutal cold snap, we gave her socks to take out to her homeless clients. Today, she was so excited to see all the cleaning supplies donated by Dollar General. The woman in the black sweater is Deb from Alive Hospice. She also loves the cleaning supplies and the little knick knacks that brighten up a patient’s room.

I wish I could take a photo of every one of our partners. They are on the front lines of poverty and, let me tell you, that can be a pretty daunting place to be. The Community Resource Center is the supply line to those on the front lines.

Dollar General is one of the giants. We are privileged to serve because we stand on the shoulders of giants.