The holidays are usually time to take a break from work, but hunger doesn't take a holiday. That's why volunteers at City Square in Dallas were busy getting boxes of food to people waiting in line Tuesday morning.
"One-hundred-fifty so far in the last two hours," Nick Leos said, guessing at the number of cars. "I could see myself in this situation and I know that I would want help."
Leos volunteered at City Square with Dallas Summer Musicals DSM Cares. He spent the morning unloading shopping carts of food into cars.
"Just a way to be a part of something bigger than myself...and give people a little bit of hope," Leos said. "Just trying to bring a little bit of joy and light to their holiday as well."
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"I don't think it's a secret that during the pandemic hard times have fallen on a lot of people," Dallas Summer Musicals Director of Education & Community Partnerships Allison Bret said. "Even before that, there was a need to make sure that the unhoused folks in our neighborhood are taken care of."
City Square said it helps 62,000 people a year with basic needs like food, housing, healthcare, and programs to lift them out of poverty.
According to City Square, more than 300,000 people in Dallas live in poverty. At City Square they aren't numbers, they're neighbors.
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"You start to form a really close connection," Bret said. "And in that close connection, you start to see there's not any difference between the folks who can afford to go to the grocery store and the folks that come by to get their Christmas dinner here."
