Founded in 1987 and located at 1099 E. Main St, Round Rock, the nonprofit serving center provides services such as a food pantry, Amazon home delivery, clothing and furniture vouchers, community gardens, and financial assistance for utilities, rent, prescriptions, payday loan assistance, transportation and temporary lodging.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the food bank has seen its largest increase in need for services, with service currently running 20% ahead of last year, last year ending in a 39% increase, 2021 ending in a 33% increase and 2020 seeing a 102% increase. Last year, the food bank served 87,400 people and distributed 1.5 million pounds of food. Due to this, coupled with the rising cost of groceries due to inflation, the need for expanded services became apparent.
“The need continues. The cost of groceries and housing right now is very high. It’s really driving low income families to seek assistance,” Lori Scott, Executive Director of RRASC said. “So we continue to see the need. We have not seen our caseload fall back to pre-COVID levels by any means. Families are just continuing to need help.”
An unexpected solution soon presented itself. After dedicating 33 years as a volunteer at RRASC, John Guiling passed away in a car accident in 2019. Following the settlement of his estate, he donated $500,000 to the serving center, enabling the organization to acquire the adjacent vacant plot of land and initiate their expansion in the fall of 2021.
“Our plan is to build a 16,000 square foot building. We're moving our charity clothing store and our charity furniture store out of the existing building and into the new building, with a huge donation receiving area,” Scott said. “Then in the existing building, in the space that is currently occupied by the furniture store, we are going to move our food pantry in there so that we'll double the size of our food pantry and then in the space that will be vacated by the clothing store, we're adding offices for Veterans Services.”
The new stores will increase the serving center’s sales revenue, which will increase the funding available for program services, such as rent and utilities assistance.
Last summer, the serving center kicked off a Capital Campaign that has raised over $5.6 million, leaving only $1.4 million left to be funded. This includes a gift of $1 million from St. David’s Foundation, as well as several anonymous gifts from long-time serving center supporters. Since 2007, St. David’s Foundation has supported the serving center with capacity building and innovative grant funding.
Additionally, the serving center now has 12 months to raise $1.28 million to unlock a grant funded by the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, which funds capital projects in six states. Since its inception, the foundation has given over $1.5 billion, including many challenge grants to motivate widespread community support to finish critical projects just like the Legacy of Compassion Campaign.
Capital Campaign Committee Members include:
- Nyle and Nancy Maxwell, Honorary Capital Campaign Chairs
- Cady Clark, Capital Campaign Co-Chair, past board president
- Steve Stapp, Capital Campaign Co-Chair
- Bruce Bessner, past board member
- PJ Condit, Board Vice President
- Mark Dankis, past board secretary
- Cynthia Flores, Executive Director of Annunciation Maternity Home
- John Hartigan, Board Member
- John Howard, past Round Rock Chamber of Commerce Board President
- Debbie Juhlke, past board member
- Michael Laing, Board President
- Jesse Navarrete, Board Member
- Greg Rabaey, past board vice president
- Shevawn Walzel, community volunteer
- Lori Scott, Executive Director of RRASC
The serving center is in the process of securing permits on the land so that construction of the building can begin immediately. They anticipate being able to break ground in November if everything goes as planned. However, the serving center is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 14 to generate community excitement about the opening.
“We want everyone to participate in our campaign and feel like they are part of our campaign and the size of the gift isn't the issue. There are no insignificant gifts,” Scott said. “We are seeking lead gifts but it will take everyone's participation to complete the campaign. With everyone's help, we will have a successful campaign.”
To learn more about what the Round Rock Area Serving Center does, visit their website here, and to donate to the campaign, click here.
The above story was produced by Community Impact's Storytelling Multi-Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.
