The Floral Heights Community Food Pantry now has a place to call home.
Where there was once a vacant lot there is now a metal building, a grant gift from Mueller Inc. Helping Hand Project. Dedication ceremonies will be at 11 a.m. today at FHCFPs new address, 903 Taylor St.
"The new building will have room for offices, storage, somewhere we can fill sacks and an area where people can fill out applications," said Amy Brown, executive director for FHCFP. "And it will all be under one roof."
FHCFP is eighth in a series of builds to help struggling nonprofits. What started as a suggestion from Bob Phillips, of the Texas Country Reporter TV show to help the Titus County Cares food bank in Mount Pleasant, Texas became an annual commitment.
"Mueller had been a sponsor for Texas Country Reporter for years," said Phillips, who with wife, Kelli, brought the TCR crew to Wichita Falls to record the food pantry build start to finish. "I brought the idea to Bryan (Davenport, Mueller Inc. president) and kind of talked him into it. Now more than 200 nonprofits apply for a Helping Hand build."
Each project brings together a wide range of Mueller employees.
"Mueller fabricates and sells buildings; contractors normally build them. But people from our IT department, sales managers and administrative assistants set aside a week every year to do it themselves," said Mike Fry, marketing director for Mueller, looking over his shoulder at Day 2 progress. "They come from our stores in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana. It's like a family reunion."
Connecting with communities has been part of each project, helping nonprofit agencies "struggling to survive."
The company, headquartered in Ballinger, Texas, and its volunteers have also made better futures for: Buckholts, Texas Volunteer Fire Department with a dry, safe structure where trucks and equipment are stored; West Texas Gifts of Hope in Odessa has eight rooms of lodging for cancer patients receiving treatment and their families; Ruth's Place in Granbury provides medical and dental care for low income and uninsured residents of Hood County; Scheib Center in San Marcos has larger facilities to provide mental health care; Corpus Christi Area Council for the Deaf links resources, services and advocacy to all ages experiencing hearing loss; The Arc of Greater Beaumont expanded their services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
"There is a domino effect," Phillips said. "Once Helping Hand builds the structure, donations increase. People see something happening and they want to be part of it."
Fundraising continues for FHCFP. The space inside its new building needs to be finished.
"If the Lord's willing and donations come we'll be able to fix the inside," Brown said. "We'll need partitions for the space, air conditioning and heat, lights, fixtures and insulation."
Donations can be made out to Floral Heights Community Food Pantry and mailed or delivered to Floral Heights United Methodist Church, 2214 10th St. Wichita Falls, Texas 76301.
