22 Sunday, March 22, 2020WaTauGa dEMOcraT cOMMunITy

BY KAYLA LASURE

kayla.lasure@wataugademocrat.com

In less than a week, multiple

groups have rallied to help

High Country community

members in the midst of the

COVID-19 pandemic that’s leaving

many temporarily or permanently

without jobs.

“This is such a philanthropic

community,” said Todd Hendley,

a managing partner of Ransom

in Boone. “A lot of places say,

‘we support local,’ but Boone is

different. Everybody in the High Country really genuinely bands

together.”

Taking a “leap of faith,” Hendley

said Ransom is partnering with

Wine to Water and Vincent Prop-

erties in hopes to help local service

workers that were temporarily

laid off. The three businesses have created a project called Care Box,

which prepares boxes of food for

local service industry workers.

Hendley met with Parkway

School Principal Patty Buckner

and Hardin Park social worker

Denise Presnell on March 13.

Hendley said Presnell invited him

to attend a meeting the follow-

ing Monday in which more than

50 community members met to

discuss how they could help others

with the impacts of COVID-19.

After that meeting, Hendley said

he and his brother Doc Hendley

— the president of Wine to Water

— wanted to do something to help.

The two knew they wanted to pack

up food boxes to give to service

workers. Not too long after, the

brothers heard from Vincent

Properties Marketing Director

Shalamar Blevins that they wanted

to partner as well.

Blevins said all three businesses

wants the community to know

that they are there for them, as the

project’s slogan is “serving for our

service industry.”

Care Box received an over-

whelming response of both people

who wanted to help with the proj-

ect and those needing its assis-

tance. Todd Hendley said each box

equates to about 40 meals, mean-

ing at the end of its first week Care Box will have packed 1,600 meals,

he said. According to the leaders,

a household of four people may

need about two boxes of food as

the hope is that a box will last five to seven days for two people.

Each box will have items such as fresh meat, turkey slices, bread,

rice, beans, pasta, fruit, soup,

snacks, peanut butter and jelly.

The boxes will soon include hand

sanitizer, hygiene products and

baby care items, according to the

group.

What started as a plan to create

a possible 150 boxes of food quick-

ly grew to a goal of 400 boxes.

The need grew after the group

reached out to a multitude of

area businesses to ask how many

boxes they would need for their

staff. Hendley said roughly 320 vouchers will be given to people to

receive food boxes.

To inquire about receiving food

from Care Box, service workers

should contact their employer to

connect with the group’s organiz-

ers. Pickup for the boxes will be

every Thursday and Friday from 1

to 6 p.m.

“Boxes are first come, first serve while supplies last, but we will be

doing our best to make sure every-

one is fed,” the group

stated.

Word quickly

spread about

Care Box, and

Hendley said

some community

members have

already donated

money to the proj-

ect by visiting give.

winetowater.org/

CAREBOX. Money for the project

goes to Wine to Water, which

gives 100 percent of the proceeds

to the project, Hendley said.

Volunteers have also started to

just show up at Ransom to join an

assembly line to pack boxes, he

added. Volunteers who are willing

and healthy are welcome, the

group stated. For more informa-

tion about Care Box, contact care.

box40@gmail.com.

“Just to see the community

band together, the restaurant

owners and managers looking out

for their teams, the volunteers

showing up and people giving

their hard-earned money to

donate to this cause — it’s insane,”

Hendley said. “It’s exciting, but

more than that it’s incredibly

humbling knowing that we live in

a community that genuinely cares

about everybody.”

Hendley said he has also been

in contact with Travis Reyes — a

service worker at The Cardinal in

Boone. Reyes has been instrumen-

tal in the creation of a local service

workers coalition. The coalition

has posted several resources to aid

service workers on Instagram,

and can be found by

following @booneser-

viceworkerscoalition.

Virtual Tip JarMark Nunes, an Appalachian

State University employee, also

wanted to help service workers by

recently creating a “virtual tip jar.”

Nunes explained that the idea of

a virtual tip jar is popping up in

other communities that are also

experiencing restaurant and bar

closures due to COVID-19. The

virtual tip jar gives the community

a way to provide direct support to

local service workers by use of a

Google sheet.

The Google sheet that Nunes

has created allows local service

workers to list their name, the

restaurant for which they work

and an online payment meth-

od such as Venmo or PayPal.

Community members can visit the

Google sheet and find the name and virtual payment system of

a server who they would like to

support. As of March 19, 64 local

service workers had signed up

to be part of the virtual tip hat,

community offers ways to help neighbors through cOVId-19 crisis

PHOTO BY KAYLA LASURE

Jordan Rowan sets

down a box of food

to help community

members in need.

Boone steps up

SEE HELP ON PAGE 23

COMMUNITY FOOD

PICKUP LOCATIONS

• Boone UMC: Hot meals to go and food boxes from 5-6:30 p.m. on Thursdays.

• FaithBridge: Hot meals to go from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Food boxes from 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursdays. Families can get food boxes twice a month.

• Hardin Park School: Food boxes from 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. on Mon-days. To go dinner and breakfast for the next day provided from 4-6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

• High Country United Church of Christ: Food boxes

10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Mondays and 5:15-7 p.m. on Saturdays.

• Mount Vernon Baptist Church: Food boxes 4-5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.

• Parkway Elementary School: Food boxes. 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. on Tuesdays.

• TheHeart: Food boxes 1-4 p.m. on Wednesdays.

• The Rock: Food boxes from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday and Sundays.

• Valle Crucis School: Food boxes 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Wednes-days.