Hungry needs in Wimberley whether you can see it or not

Winter is coming up and the cold is bitter and growing. The Crisis Bread Basket sees the hunger needs of the Wimberley community, and the community they serve is growing. Although the amount of poverty might not be noticeable from Ranch Road 12, it is there. Those little gravel and caliche roads off to the side will take you there. Keep on driving, way back. Once you arrive, it’s not what you might think of when you say Wimberley, but it is real.

“Most people don’t have a clue,” Melissa Maceo, Vice Chairperson of CBB, said. “I’ve never seen elderly women in conditions like this: no electricity, no heat. A propone tank with a stove on top is how they cook. It’s pretty crazy. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen. Growing families, there’s no longer a place available.”

The COVID-19 virus has hit hard and what happens when job and security for family has suddenly disappeared? “A man just moved here with three children. He had tears in his eyes. I bundled up a sack of groceries. He grabbed me and hugged me,” CBB volunteer Margaret Baker said.

There really are people living in lean-toos, old RVs, cars and trucks. Abandoned tires everywhere and no hope of garbage pickup, community fires to cook, the list goes on.

Yes, it’s a fact that there is hunger in Wimberley. You’d have to volunteer at CBB to see firsthand the vast need in the community when food distribution happens. But like Wimberley tends to do, there are people ready and willing to help.

“The community has stepped up with farmers sharing their fresh produce, money, groceries. I just can’t say enough cool things about the community… I’m overwhelmed with the giving. Everybody has helped.”

But as Thanksgiving and the holidays approach, like the skies of winter, it will be darker for many. Beyond the day-to-day needs for the Crisis Bread Basket, there also one big opportunity to help.

Dealing with the pandemic is new to everyone, but adapting is what we have always have done. In just fifty years the educational system has gone from number 2 pencils and Big Chief tablets, to Chromebooks and paperless documents, something seen only in science fiction at that time.

Change, and dealing with it, is not new. It has already begun to the educational system, as well as to our daily lives. Wimberley ISD is following the state rules in trying to keep children the safest that they can, when they attend school under any of the options available.

“To protect everyone’s safety and health due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no donations collected on Ranch Road 12 this year,” CBB President John Urban said.

But the tradition will survive, if the CBB and Ozona Bank have anything to say about it. Here’s how donations can be made:

• At Ozona Bank, lobby or drive through teller.

• Crisis Bread Basket pantry check drop box

• Website at www.crisisbreadbasket.com (click donate)

Another part of that great tradition is that funds donated are matched two to one. Ozona Bank will match funds raised up to $5,000 of community donations in Noveember.

Helping families receive a turkey dinner is a way of saying, “We take care of our own” in Wimberley.

Help the CBB Stuff the Turkey

Ozona Bank will match up to $5,000 of community donations for the CBB through November. Donate at Ozona Bank, at the CBB or online at crisisbreadbasket.com.