Our service model was transformed to keep both our team members and guests safe.
Rain or shine, we offered drive-up service for those needing food. We practiced safety guidelines and kept health first in line.
We partnered with Plano ISD and McKinney ISD to ensure that no child goes hungry during COVID-19 school closures. We fed over 16,000 children weekly distributing pre-packed boxes of healthy meals.
Paul Quinn College also made the call and we partnered with them to serve over 500 families with food and produce!
Our service days were expanded to a 6-day workweek after clearly seeing the coronavirus pandemic leave an economical effect on the community as a whole.
We humbly received the Certificate of Congressional Recognition from the U. S. House of Representatives in recognition of being named the Best Food Pantry of Plano.
We also partnered with McKinney Little Free Pantry to keep their shelves stocked.
Any fresh food we were unable to distribute to our guests, we donated to Texas Metro Wildlife Rehabilitators. Our donations helped feed over 2,500 animals.
Hunger doesn't wait in line so we visited Plano Day Labor throughout the year and distributed food to those waiting for the day's work.
In the summer, we partnered with One Community Church and provided over 1,298 families with Minnie's Family Food Boxes loaded with over 103,840 pounds of non-perishables, dairy items, fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat products to families in need.
The Dallas Cowboys joined our Veterans Day Giveaway. Larry Brown, Tony Dorsett, and Drew Pearson helped us distribute over 33,800 meals to deserving Veterans.
Owner, Mark Cuban, and CEO, Cynt Marshall of the Dallas Mavericks sponsored 35 permanent staff members for almost five months so that we could handle the increase in need, especially during the holidays. We went from 11 employees to 46 employees and we desperately needed the help.
We loaded up cars with turkey dinners for over 4,100 families during our Thanksgiving Giveaway. In 2019, we served 1,700 families utilizing 628 volunteers. In 2020, we pulled off twice the number of families served for Thanksgiving with only 154 pairs of helping hands, including staff members and volunteers! The Dallas Mavericks and Emerald City Band joined us to provide entertainment to our team and our guests. You could truly feel the love and gratitude that day.
We donated 283 gifts to senior citizens in senior living facilities during our Senior Citizen Christmas Bash. Although we couldn't hold our annual event in person, we were dedicated to making sure seniors were shown love during the pandemic AND the holidays.
We partnered with the following senior centers all throughout the year to provide fresh food: Tuscany at Goldmark, Pioneer Place, and Savannah At Gateway. Altogether, we served 17,739 senior citizens with a smile!
For Christmas, Minnie's Food Pantry distributed over 4,118 gifts to families with children so the kids could have a great Christmas.
Oprah Winfrey tweeted and gave Minnie's Food Pantry a shout-out, calling us "Angels in Texas". What a way to end the year.