With inflation and increased cost of living expenses, many people in our community need a little extra help with feeding their families. Hill Country Community Ministries (HCCM) is able to provide additional food for anyone in our community through our Community Cupboard. In the past, we had a “free area” that provided bread for folks on a walk-in basis. In 2019, we opened a room in the back area of the pantry exclusively for this purpose and named it the Community Cupboard. This area is open for anybody to come in on a daily basis.
It has been our dream to provide healthy options along with bread and pastries. With the help of our retail partners, we are now able to offer fresh produce, herbs, and deli items such as prepared salads and sandwiches, yogurt, cut fruit, and cheeses. Our retail partners include HEB, Randall’s, Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Papa Johns, Chick-Fil-A, and Natural Grocers. We still have plenty of bread to share and, of course, the much-appreciated dessert items! We collect some minimal information, so we know how many families we are helping.
Through grants and other donations, we have been able to obtain amazing coolers and shelves for this area. This makes our little area feel like a convenience store! Many seniors and homeless people can get the food they need for each day. In the summer, many families need to supplement their groceries to feed their children who are home from school. In fact, we serve nearly 2,500 families a month in our little Cupboard, which is a 100% increase from the last two years!
We are blessed to have the ability to help so many people in our community. Our Community Cupboard is open during our regular business hours: Monday through Friday, 9 am – noon, and 1-3 pm, with extended hours on Thursdays until 7 pm. We do lock the doors 10 minutes before closing so we can allow the customers to finish shopping and our volunteers to clean up. The Community Cupboard is located at our HCCM Food Pantry Headquarters at 1005 Lacy Drive in Leander. Come and visit us if you need a little extra food!
