The organization offers free food, clothing and household items to those in need. Operation Liberty Hill also runs a food pantry and thrift store. Susan Baker, the executive director of Operation Liberty Hill, answered questions for Community Impact Newspaper's volunteer guide.
The nonprofit is located at 1401 US 183, Leander. Interested readers may call 512-778-4175 to reach the thrift store, 512-778-5077 for the food pantry or visit https://operationlh.org for more information.
- What do you hope people understand about the need in the community?
A. One of the biggest things is because we’re rural, we don’t see people panhandling. People assume we don’t have a homeless community or people living below the poverty level, but we do. - What do you hope volunteers learn from volunteering at Operation Liberty Hill?
A. I hope that they learn that we can’t be judgmental whatsoever about what we perceive somebody to be or not to be. We don’t know a person’s entire story. We don’t know what’s going on in their lives or homes. … Treat everyone with love and make them feel valued. - How has the organization grown over the years?
A. I think the biggest change for us is we obtained the property where we are now, just on the border of Liberty Hill and Leander, but we have a Leander address. That was three years ago. Last January we expanded our serving area to Leander and toward Briggs and Bertram. ... We have grown from [serving] about 45 families to about 280 families.
