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SALT LAKE CITY — A semitruck loaded with $30,000 dollars worth of supplies is headed to Texas. The donated items were collected by a Sugarhouse neighborhood when they found out some food pantries have been shut down since the deadly winter storm.
The natural disaster hit families already dealing with food insecurities because of the pandemic especially hard.
When Lindsay Wade heard about the need, she put out a call for donations on her social media.
"We originally said, 'Let's make a goal of filling up a U-Haul,' and I thought, you know, we could just do it on a smaller scale," Wade said. "But the donations started flooding in. Then, I'm like, 'We are going bigger!'"
Neighbors dropped off canned food, water bottles and hygiene products. Complete strangers started to send Wade money over Venmo. In less than a week, she collected $30,000 worth of supplies.
It started off as a post on social media...now food, water, toilet paper, hygiene products are headed to Texas to fill the shelves of food pantries.
— Ashley Moser (@AshleyMoser) February 26, 2021
At 5:00 and 6:00, the personal experience this Utah neighborhood went through last year that prompted them to serve @KSL5TVpic.twitter.com/pp3KxJrH2b
"My porch, my backyard, my patio, my garage was piled. It's like we were bursting at the seams," she said. "People donated things like Top Ramen, toilet paper, water, soup, canned vegetables and fruits."
Her neighbor, the owner of Creminelli, lent his semi, covering the cost of fuel and the driver to help make the trip to food pantries in Denton, Texas.
"All eight pantries have been closed for the past week and a half," Wade said. "They are not getting any food, and these people depend on that food."
Wade said it was nothing compared to what Texans were dealing with, but her neighborhood went through their own power loss during last year's wind storm.
"Just that week of helplessness was taxing on me," she said. "I can't imagine what this is doing for them."
Many food pantries have been empty since that once-in-a-lifetime storm hit Texas.
— Ashley Moser (@AshleyMoser) February 26, 2021
Now $30,000 worth of supplies is headed to help those in need after a Sugarhouse neighborhood put out a call for donations! Their story at 5:00 & 6:00 @KSL5TVpic.twitter.com/Ypb7lOdNaa
She feels that experience, coupled with the need to serve, prompted her neighbors to lend a helping hand.
"People wanted the chance to serve, and the opportunity wasn't there quite yet, but once we put it out there, it took off," she said.
The supplies left Salt Lake City on Friday and will arrive in Denton late Saturday to be unloaded by Latter-day Saint missionaries Sunday morning.
