By Jennifer Theurer
Every Tuesday for the last year and a half, Neighbor to Neighbor Abilene has loaded their cargo van with food items and hygiene products before traveling to a different town in Dickinson County. This mobile unit brings items found in brick-and-mortar food banks to anyone in need.
“Anybody from the surrounding area can come. No questions asked,” said Amanda Robinson, director of N2N. “We bring all the same stuff and the stipulation behind that is that there is none.”
There are also no limits to what the unit can offer. Refrigerated items make the trip thanks to an electric cooler that can be a refrigerator and freezer that was purchased with grant funds from The Community Foundation of Dickinson County.
“So we can set that up how we need and load that with frozen meat, maybe milk, eggs, or whatever,” she said.
Canned goods and fresh produce are usually included as well as toilet paper, razors, shampoo, baby wipes, diapers, and toothbrushes. The group tracks household numbers for grant applications and to track the need in each area.
“That helps us because if we served 300 this month and then we noticed it jumped to 700 then we might need to bring more things. Maybe there’s another underlying problem,” Robinson said.
The mobile unit travels to Woodbine, Hope, Enterprise, and Solomon the first four Tuesdays of every month and if there happens to be a fifth Tuesday in a month they travel to Industry.
“We have a certain spot we do it and it’s usually always the same time,” she said.
Recently, N2N has started a Monday Night Meals program for two areas in Abilene that are considered outside of city limits where buses don’t run.
“We take our mobile food and hygiene unit out to two trailer parks here in Abilene and deliver Monday night meals whether it’s provided by the community dinner and we deliver it, or if it’s provided by us,” Robinson said.
N2N accepts donations of food and hygiene items during their regular business hours and donations of time after.
“At each one of these sites for the Tuesday nights, we have hospitality aides there,” Robinson said. “And it’s just people who volunteered their time to help us unload the van and serve these people.”
