Mesquite

Food Pantry Deploys Innovative Solutions to Fight Hunger

Sharing Life in Mesquite installed refrigerated and frozen lockers for 24/7 access to food

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This is a big week for a nonprofit in Mesquite working to fight hunger. It will debut a new service that will get food to clients 'round the clock.

"We're trying to find alternative ways to get food to people and how can we do that since it's not feasible for us to staff 24/7?," said Jacob Taylor, Director of Operations for Sharing Life.

The answer was outdoor lockers so clients can pick up food on their own schedule.

"I was at 7-Eleven one day, going in to get gas and noticing that Amazon has lockers that are always set up outside 7-Elevens where you can pick up your packages from them," Taylor said. "And, I'm like, 'Why can't we do that outside the building?' So, I did some research, found some grant funding and we now have refrigerated and frozen lockers that were installed this week."

Clients select food online, then get a code or PIN to open the locker and the food is there waiting.

"Because they're refrigerated and frozen, we can still safely offer frozen chicken, produce, those kinds of things we normally wouldn't be able to leave out for someone. It's safe. Well lit. Secure. And allows them to access, essentially turning us into a 24-hour food pantry," Taylor said. "That's what it's really about. It's about getting the right food to them when they can get to it. Not everyone can get here in a 9-to-5 day. So, if we can offer that and provide another way to get stuff that meets their schedules and their lives, that's a win-win."

Sharing Life also offers clients online shopping that allows them to schedule a convenient time for pick-up. Taylor says the e-pantry project started before online grocery became common. The traditional food pantry adapted and innovated as it saw a greater need in service areas like Mesquite, Garland, Far East Dallas and Pleasant Grove.

"So, if you get 200 people showing up at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday, it could be hours to get through the pantry. So we started thinking about how to do we do this, how can we improve this and speed this up so people can get out of there so they can get back to work?" Taylor said. "We thought how are other retailers, how are the profits for doing this? And, online made sense. It gives people the ability to shop when they want to. 10:00 at night, when they get home from work. So, they could go through and shop and set the time they could pick it up from us."

Clients pull into the parking lot, text a number to alert staff inside they've arrived and they'll come out with a grocery cart and load up the car. Online shopping is so popular, two more staff members were hired recently.

For those who can't get to the facility, there's another option. There's free delivery from Door Dash within a select area.

Sharing Life has been in operation for more than 20 years. It serves the Greater Dallas, Kaufman and Rockwall areas providing clients with food, clothing, rent and utility assistance, workforce development and job coaching. It is also a redistribution hub for North Texas Food Bank with 90 to 100 food pantries picking up food there and avoiding the drive to Plano were NTFB is based.

In 2021, it served more than 158,000 families, distributed 8,800,000 million pounds of food and provided more than $2,000,000 in financial assistance.

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