Here’s your opportunity to help with food insecurity in our community. Donate to our team fundraiser to benefit Love All Pantry at Central by clicking secure giving link below! Let’s help provide Holiday Dinners this holiday season. Or, we will be accepting nonperishable food items during the month of December at our 1203 Dauphin Street address, Monday – Friday, 8am-5pm.
Full Transcript
Welcome back FM talk 106.5 and mobile mornings And it’s that time of the month again where we have Law 251 and Bryan Comer from Tobias and Comer Law is in with us again today, but we have a special guest for a very very special cause and Very special day tomorrow also coming up Bryan. Thank you so much for coming in Yeah, thanks for having me Dalton and let’s introduce our other guest here Connie Guggenbiller with love all pantry Did I get that right Connie you did you said it perfectly all right for having me practice makes perfect and well I mean it sounds like your life calling and what you do and what you do for this community is Absolutely amazing and not just this time of year holiday season, but year-round, but it’s really great And why don’t we start with Bryan because Tobias and Comer law you guys are teaming up with love all pantry, right? for the holidays How did this come about yeah So, you know We talk all the time about being real people and and wanting to care for our community and caring for our community and we have some Phenomenal neighbors, you know, we’re right next door to the School of Math and Science there at Dauphin and Anne and right across the street from the church and the pantry and just I see it every Tuesday where people line up to come and and the amount of Of effect that they have positive effect on the community and just with National Day of Giving coming up While they certainly do this year-round What we wanted to do was draw emphasis to what they do and really challenge the community to step up and help us help them That’s great. And we’ll talk about your specific challenge to the community coming up here But Connie, let’s talk about love all pantry and you know Tomorrow’s the National Day of Giving but you give all year round and you give your time and you’re very passionate about this as we were Talking about it off the air.
Tell me about love all pantry Love all pantry started out as a small closet many years ago as people would come to the door But the need has increased so much As we know food pantries used to be emergency food pantries. You’d see them crop up after hurricanes Different things like that, but they are more life-sustaining now than ever before And you said that while we were talking about it the difference in life-sustaining and life-saving I think people think of food pantries and Helping the community as a oh, no, like we’re it’s it has to happen now, but you’re you’re seeing this Life-sustaining means you have people coming, you know weekend and week out that need this. That’s exactly right We do about 750 families every week out of that.
There’s about 450 appointments made there’s between 250-300 of deliveries made. this is a volunteer run organization and the volunteers that come always stay if You really want to make a connection with a community Load food up in your car and go to where people are at and just see The volunteers go and they listen and they see Not not we can’t solve all problems. But what we can do is see people and Listen to them, you know, I think there’s a lot of invisibility in the world because we’re afraid to connect. Hmm You said this started as a closet it did and now it’s much bigger Have you noticed over the years and I know we we just had this government shutdown which brought a lot more attention To things like that, but even before then have you seen an increase in people that that need this kind of help? Absolutely.
Absolutely. And as the word has gotten out about the fact that we can deliver to homes It makes a lot of difference A lot of people with no transportation if they have no transportation not only can they not get to the food pantry But they couldn’t even get to a store if there was one available. Hmm.
I Honestly don’t drive by many things like this people going into a parking lot to pick up food that they need Bryan you said you see you see him lining up. Absolutely. What’s that like? Yeah, so I mean it’s very It’s both humbling and also Encouraging because you see the need in the community and you see the people who actually are there for this this important need but then also the service that’s being provided for the community and you Just to see that and to see you know, the effect of that firsthand is powerful Hmm, and I’m serious like they’ll they’ll wrap around the school math and science down and Street and around on on Tuesdays and It’s just to It’s tangible is I guess the main thing I want to take away because sometimes you see okay Well, you want to help this cause and it’s it’s something a way you never see it But I mean you see it you see the faces you see the people and it’s it’s right here in our community You don’t have to imagine it.
No. Yeah right there Yeah and You know in this month as we head towards Christmas and with tomorrow being the National Day of Giving and I want to get into What we’re doing here what the what the the challenge is from Tobias and Comer law and love all pantry But something you said Connie really said the volunteers never leave they don’t when they come they stay there They are committed and they are committed to different ways of giving at the time to we partner with Excel University early on Probably two years ago and on every other Friday the truck where we go and pick up store level pickup We take it straight over there the volunteers come and set it up and families from the the school Children there they come and shop and pick up and everything is gone at the end of the eve Wow, so they’ve done this on their own You know, I asked could we do this they committed they said yes, they’ll certainly do this, you know This being a political show. It’s part political mobile mornings We talk about everything under the Sun anything locally that it gets people talking but politics makes up a big part of this and I don’t want to I don’t want to make this a political thing, but with the shutdown and Everyone’s wondering.
Okay, where’s my next meal coming from? You have all these questions but what I’ve always been big on and I think people on either side of the political aisle can agree on is that your community is your community and Being a being self-sustaining as a person as a family It’s one thing but communities need to help Themselves as a community continue on and I it sounds like you have great community response But how big is it to have people around here that that are helping out and bringing food and bringing donations? We have seen an uptick in that since the shutdown of the government and The different communities that have reached out have it’s been heartwarming to see Because I feel like that if we as a community could take care of our community Because they’re always going to be there. Why ignore them? I don’t think it’s encouraging people. I to be Takers I think it encourages people to join and see because you have so many people That we do give food to say and how can I volunteer? How can I give back how can I give back Wow, so we’re not encouraging people to be takers I think by being accepting of what they can give got a Old older couple that comes from Lusdale to pick up to deliver out to that area Every time they come there’s an envelope with a little money in it.
Usually $ I mean that is commitment right there. Hmm, and let’s talk about this holiday dinners to benefit love all pantry. What are we doing here Bryan? Yeah, so there’s really two ways that people can can give Obviously they can they can bring food and so non-perishable items We’re a drop-off location for that people can come by while we’re open eight to five or twelve or three Dolphin Street money to Friday the other part of it is people can give financially and what we’re offering to do and the challenge that I’m given to the community is We will we will match whatever is donated up to $2,500, and there’s a link on our website and also through through our social media that you can go to And the donation is it’s easy to do and again for every dollar that’s donated will match up to $2,500, But what that then provides is the opportunity not only for the non-perishables not only for the canned goods But for them to go out and actually purchase fresh produce fresh meats things that a lot of us take for granted day in day out But that actually, you know helps folks who really need it.
And I think we talked about this a lot about kids and Food insecurity and things like that as schools letting out for the holiday season, you know This might be the the best shot that some folks have at getting Fresh food fresh produce fresh fresh meat And so that’s that’s what I really want to challenge the community to do is is step up to the plate We’re saying, you know Put put the money where the mouth is and and and we really mean it because it like I said I’ve seen it firsthand. It makes a difference in the community and and You know when we all when we help those Less fortunate and those who are in their time of need we’re helping everybody and we’re helping make our community better as a whole I I love a good challenge and I know our listeners love a good challenge, too And I’m gonna donate right here when we get off the air just to get it in there And I know we’re posting this up on our Facebook page, too And we’re linking through so for people that want to make that cash donation But Connie as far as items that people can can bring by or or donations Tell me a little bit about what you look for What’s kind of at the top of the list and Bryan was kind of getting into it there, too when someone makes a Monetary donation Then you guys who are on the you’re right there You know what how to the best way to spend that money and how to stretch those dollars best What do you if you had a wish list for people that want to give what do you tell them? I would love to say that The holidays are very important So could for Christmas would we challenge people to bring Christmas foods? Something that that we can then turn around and make a good Christmas box out of Because I think that that’s the first thing we’re gonna look for You know, I I hear a lot of people that and I think as we know family meals are so important people sitting around together But we have a lot of calls, you know wanting something special for a holiday meal so I think that if there was a food drive and somebody wanted to Donate a hundred hams say to give out, you know hundred turkeys to give out That would be just like a dream come true. Yeah, you know, that’s great and National Day of Giving so that’s tomorrow.
We’re obviously Skyrocketing right towards Christmas the holiday dinners to benefit love all pantry beyond whatever holiday it is You’re still working down there. That’s right. That’s right.
You mentioned volunteers I know we have some volunteers in our audience to or people that just want to give How can people find out about love all pantry, you know, regardless of what time of year it is? well, they can go to the website love all pantry and They can sign up that way they can call the The main number for getting the message to me is two five one four three two. Oh five nine one Okay, and then we have wonderful lady who gets all messages to me Show up on Monday eight o’clock show up on Tuesday about seven o’clock start seeing what it’s all about Just wear closed-toe shoes And be prepared to get dirty. Don’t come dressed in your finest.
Hey, because there are spills There are things like that, you know, I’d have to have finest to dress up in them. So I’m ready to roll. I will say this that I Love the idea of what is going on? You know, we had Art suit just a little back ways back.
Mm-hmm, and we made raised more money than we ever have before My wish my dream is this is that we could have monthly donations enough to sustain What we need to buy every month and then when the main fundraiser comes around We could start dreaming about a bigger building a better way to do things Well said let’s make it happen, let’s make it happen audience here for mobile mornings Connie Guggenbill er love all pantry Bryan Comer Tobias and Comer law and you guys have this information up at Tobias Comer law Calm as well for people to click through on and we keep posting it on Facebook so numerous ways for you to get where you need to go, but I really appreciate what you do Connie and Bryan the fact that Tobias Comer law helping with the community again I’ve told you before so I’m not gonna harp on it, but really appreciate what you guys do. Absolutely I appreciate you getting the message out. I do too.
This is so important. I really appreciate the opportunity Well that that’s another edition of law and a really good one as we head towards Christmas tomorrow the National Day of Giving Thanks again for Connie and Bryan coming in and that does it for today on mobile mornings coming up next the Jeff poor show It’s on the way next No representation is made that legal services performed or greater than the quality of legal services of others
