It’s been an interesting Spring in North Texas…which means our Community Garden needs a little bit more attention than usual, luckily, the SASO group rolled up their sleeves and got in the mud! After the tremendous rainfall, there has been ample weeds flourishing in the GRACE Community Garden. 10 SASO (Scholars & Athletes Serving Others) members (5 moms and 5 sons) worked hard to return the garden to a thriving and healthy state. “SASO is happy to support GRACE in many ways throughout the year including a week of Feed Our Kids each summer, volunteers for the Grocery Giveaway, and generous donations of food and supplies at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’re happy to have our members signed up to help again this fall in the garden, hopefully with less weeds and a bountiful harvest!” Tracey McDevitt, SASO President. Our Garden might look tiny but it provides over 2,000 pounds

Did you know that socks and underwear are the most requested but least donated items? If you, your office, small group, troop or church are looking for a short-term project, a clothing drive is a perfect way to meet immediate needs. Encourage friends and family to purchase an extra bag of socks or underwear the next time they are at the store. Agree to gather all the items and designate someone to deliver the items to GRACE Main or Donation Station. In preparation for the upcoming school year, GRACE is working to make sure that any families that come here have access to the essentials that you or I might take for granted. Throughout the year, the clothing room is also in need of tennis shoes in good condition and in all sizes. While GRACE loves gently used clothing – these items need to be brand new! Socks Girls Sizes –

GRACE is honored to announce longtime supporters, Ana Erwin and Jessica Cruz as the 2021 Chairs for the 18th annual GRACE Gala. Our annual Gala is the single largest fundraising event for GRACE and revenues from the event are used to fund the many programs and services offered to GRACE clients throughout the year. This year we are proud to announce that the Gala will return to the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas., November 6th. Ana Erwin, General Manager of Community Impact Newspaper, has been a supporter of GRACE for years and a GRACE Board Member since 2020. Incredibly active in the communities of Grapevine, Colleyville and Southlake. She is also a member of Rotary, on the Grapevine Chamber Board of Directors, and has volunteered on the GRACE Gala committee for several years – 2 years ago as Auction Chair. “Last year was really, really, really hard for everyone.

We want to thank Glenview Professional Pharmacy for vaccinating kids 12 and older during Feed Our Kids this week. This was our first event like this and it was a great success! “We came out to provide vaccines to the under-served communities in the area. We’ve partnered with GRACE on previous projects including adult vaccines, we’ve already been to GRACE HQ three times this month for vaccines and will be back soon to do more vaccines for kids,” Mita Mehta, President and Co-Owner of Glenview Professional Pharmacy. “It’s a great partnership, I enjoy working with the GRACE team, you’re an absolute joy!” The partnership between Mita and the GRACE Community Clinic started seven years ago when she was distributing flu vaccines. “It’s exciting to see our population getting their children protected before school starts back up. These parents got their vaccines and now they’re protecting their children,” said GRACE Clinic

Dino Deeds announces their first ever Dino Drop food drive for Feed Our Kids! Dino Deeds are a fun and definitely unique team dedicated to making a difference with a smile (and a dinosaur costume)! Dino Deeds describe themselves as… “Harriet & Millie…just 2 Dino gals doing good deeds within the community along with their pal Wrangler Betty! We hope to inspire others to be kind & go out & do Good Deeds within their community!” Feed Our Kids started in 2005 with the mission to provide lunches for area children during the summer weeks when they may otherwise not receive one. Feed Our Kids fills these “hungry” weeks with sack lunches, milk, smiles, and a loving atmosphere. This program started back up at the beginning of June and has already provided over 4,000 lunches to local kids, it’s not only an effective program – it’s a fun program! Kids

Two of our favorite programs started back up with a bang this week! Feed Our Kids provided 2,379 lunches for local kids and GRACE Grocery Giveaway provided fresh groceries for 89 families! We are so glad to have these programs back and so appreciative of everyone who participated. These programs are two ways our community works with GRACE to address food insecurity in our area!  Food insecurity refers to the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Food insecure children are those children living in households experiencing food insecurity. The rate of food insecurity for children in Tarrant County surpasses the national rate by over 3.7%. This means many children in Tarrant County live in families who do not have adequate and healthy food for all household members. These two programs

We are proud to recognize two GRACE volunteers as recipients of the Shining Star, awarded by the Arts Council of Northeast Tarrant County. An event was held at the Colleyville Center this week honoring ArtsNET’s Shining Stars, an award presented to outstanding volunteers and members of our community who are committed to making a difference. The pandemic postponed last year’s event but luckily everyone was able to gather and recognize not only last year’s recipients but this year’s as well. Founded in 1978, ArtsNET provides artistic, cultural, and educational opportunities to improve the quality of life in our communities. This group put together an amazing event and we are proud to announce winners from both 2020 and 2021! The winner of the 2020 Shining Star is longtime volunteer Russ Lugo. Russ started volunteering in 2015 and teaches conversational English to anyone who wants to learn – he also focuses his

Our Food Pantry inventory is low or out of many items, and we need your help! Providing good wholesome food could be the most basic and most important service we offer our clients. Our Food Pantry serves as a grocery store and community hub for hundreds and hundreds of our clients. When our community members need food or other goods, they know that they can rely on the friendly faces of the hard-working GRACE Pantry staff and volunteers. That’s why keeping the Pantry stocked with only the finest goods is crucial. Your contributions to our shelves and refrigerators directly impact families in our community so please, view our most current Pantry Needs List here and make an impact today.  

Our annual Gifting Party serves as a way to kick off Gala season and help get our top-tier Gala Auction in motion. The gifts you donated start the process of helping us raise money that will have a massive impact on our programs and therefore, the surrounding communities. Our organization uses all the funds received from our Gala Auction to help breathe life into programs like Transitional Housing, Community Pantry, and our award winning Clinic. Attendees loved the delicious food, drinks, and of course the games at Crush It! Virtual Sports Lounge located at 401 W State Hwy 114 in Grapevine. The futuristic facility has fun and unique interactive video games that allow you to play a number of games like home run derby, golf, and even zombie dodgeball with real sporting equipment. Crush It owner Mike Speets is excited to be a new partner with GRACE. “I actually met

This year’s annual Poker Tournament was a smashing success! We had so much fun watching the play unfold as players bantered and bluffed their way to the final table. Scratch Kitchen provided delicious foods and Classic Wines served amazing wines from around the world. The good folks at Michael’s Tobacco of Euless provided some fantastic cigars for the players as well. Southlake poker celebrity Bryan Campanello – a WSOP Circuit Main Event Champion with over $1,000,000 in winnings – gave players tips and tricks to help them win. We want to thank Park Place Jaguar Land Rover DFW for being such excellent hosts, the gorgeous show room was the perfect spot to hold this tournament. Attendees relaxed in comfort at the cutting edge facility and were also able to sneak peeks at some stunning new Range Rovers that were on display. Congratulations to our top three players! Mr. Craig Aires