KILLEEN, TX — Ronda Richardson hasn’t missed one month of passing out nutritional food to the community for nearly 7 years.
A week of rain, sleet and snow almost ruined that record when the Refuge Corporation’s food distribution 18-wheelers were stuck on the icy roads trying to get to Killeen.
After rescheduling the event to Saturday, a week after its original day, a little morning fog didn’t stand a chance in stopping her from doing what she loves.
“It’s an honor and a privilege,” Richardson explained. “It’s just a great joy because you made a difference in someone’s life, so I’m just grateful.”
She volunteers with the Refuge Corporation, an organization that aims to provide supplies and healthy food for those in need.
Both of those are hard to come by in stores these days after last week’s harsh weather.
“The need was so great,” Joseph Solomon, the executive director of the organization said. “When I looked at the food markets, the shelves [were] empty and I saw on TV…we had to do something, we had to do something.”
But the road to getting there was a rocky one and had it’s hurdles, some so big Solomon said he was nervous about not having the event at all this month.
”We were very worried,” he explained. “We had the bad weather, we had the storms, and that delayed us. We normally are here every third Saturday, but we could not do it because of the trucks, the difficulty of the supply coming in.”
Some of those trucks never made it at all. What was on them? Produce.
”We weren't able to get everything that we needed to give out,” Solomon said. “But we have enough to supplement the needs of the community.”
They still gave out baby supplies, like diapers, meats, dry and canned goods and bottles of water.
As Richardson works through the lines of cars, stopping to wave at everyone, she said giving anything to those struggling is a blessing.
“When they see that hope is something to hold on to, that just brings a smile upon their face that somebody cares,” she said, while smiling. “Somebody cares about them.”
The Refuge Corporation’s mobile food pantry holds food drives on the third Saturday of every month. To stay up to date on future times and locations, head over to their Facebookpage where they post updates regularly.
