A Heart For The Community

A Heart for the Community by Caylie Howard | photos courtesy of Rob Veal, President and CEO of Heart of the City

It’s not uncommon for people to fall on hard times, especially in the last two years. No matter what the circumstances may be, the struggle is still the same. In times of need, it can be difficult for people to reach out and ask for help for themselves and their family. Many people have a fear of being judged or being looked down upon simply because of their difficult situations. At Heart of the City, they truly do care for the people of their community and they make it their mission to treat every person that walks through their doors as a valued member of society.

Heart of the City truly does try to meet all of the community’s needs. They offer food supply, clothing, and life counseling on how to get out of the situation these people are in and better their lives. “Heart of the City is a big umbrella and under that are three different major programs. One is the Farmers Market Food Pantry, the second is Graham’s Totally Free Clothing, and the third part is called Thrive where we do life skills coaching.” Rob Veal, President and CEO of Heart of the City, said.

Heart of the City truly does try to meet all of the community’s needs. They offer food supply, clothing, and life counseling on how to get out of the situation these people are in and better their lives.

Heart of the City was born in 2019 and the nonprofit just celebrated 2 years of giving quality help service to the community in need. However, the idea of Heart of the City came to be in 2009. “It took me, personally, about 10 years to be able to get into a position where I had the time to do this. So in January of 2019 I stood in front our church and said, ‘God’s leading me to start this and I need two people to help’ and a couple of senior adults in their seventies say ‘we’ll plug in and help’,” Rob said.

The first thing that Heart of the City did was hold a free clothing giveaway. “Everyone has extra clothes in their closets, so everyone brought clothes and we gave them to the community and that’s how we began to establish links in the community,” Rob said.

A couple of months after their free clothing giveaway, the nonprofit began to raise funds for an office expansion. “In four different dinners we raise $42,000 to remodel our building and make the food pantry,” Rob said.

“October 28th, 2019 was our first day to serve,” Rob said. The goal for the Farmers Market Food Pantry was to serve around 200 to 300 families a month. But then COVID hit. “The whole world shut down, but we never did. We actually reprogrammed everything and started serving at people’s cars, and when we did that, we serving an excess of 250 families every Saturday. We exponentially grew,” Rob said. Heart of the City has designed their facility to make each person that walks through their door feel like they are getting a true, high end shopping experience. When you step into the Farmers Market Food Pantry, you truly feel like you are walking through a grocery store. When you walk through the Door of Hope in Graham’s Totally Free Clothing, you feel as if you are strolling through a local boutique. Every experience you have at Heart of the City is made to make you feel valued and important, which is just one of the things that make Heart of the City such a special part of our community. They serve all of south Denton County.

To learn more about Heart of the City and how to volunteer, visit heartofthecitylewisville.com