Ruby’s Pantry of Austin making plans to continue distributions heading toward winter

Ruby’s Pantry Austin is looking ahead to winter, and they are making plans to continue their distributions  at the Mower County Fairgrounds with some changes. 

Bob Rosel, Ruby’s Media Coordinator in Austin stated that currently, Ruby’s uses the Plager Building as a staging area but that building will be used for winter storage of boats and RV’s and be unavailable. The Mower County Fair Board has offered the use of other facilities and Ruby’s is expected to use them starting in November. 

Ruby’s Pantry Austin will also be experimenting with a slightly different way to distribute the food  during our October 15th distribution. Instead of prefilling boxes and then putting those boxes in  each vehicle, Rosel stated that they are going to try a station-to-station drive-thru. Each vehicle will start moving  slowly down the line with the trunk open and will stop at each station. At each stop a volunteer will put the food item into the trunk and the guest will then slowly drive on to the next station, where the process will be repeated. This will continue all the way for the 15 to 20 stations of  items available. No boxes will be loaded into the vehicle. However, if a guest would like the volunteers to place the items in a box or basket they can put two empty laundry basket sized  containers, for each bundle, in their vehicle and the items will be placed in their baskets. The  boxes from past distributions at the fairgrounds would be perfect for this process. 

Ruby’s Austin is hoping to speed up the distribution and keep their volunteers safe by doing most of the work outside and giving them the option for distributions in case they do not have access to a  building for staging. Guests will enter the fairgrounds, as before, from 4th Ave SW and will then line up while waiting for instructions to get in line. A $20 per bundle exact cash donation is  requested for each bundle with a maximum of two bundles per vehicle. Guests are asked to clean out a space in their vehicle for the items to be quickly and safely placed. The distribution  starts at 5:00 PM. 

Ruby’s Pantry Austin is trying this method to see how it works and changes to the process will  be made if necessary. Guests are asked to follow instructions and will remain in their vehicle  during the distribution. 

Anyone with questions can call Grace Lutheran Church at 433-3445 and check out our Rubys  Pantry Austin Facebook page.