May 18-30: The third DtCP Weekly Update

Key highlights these last two weeks! Keeping it nice and short.

• We delivered 200 care packs on May 29 and 30th, doubling the 100 care packs per week we usually deliver. We sent 97 care packs on May 22 and 23. 
• About to send ~15,000 face shields to Nepal via Global Shapers in Kathmandu. 
• In total, we’ve now sent 938 care packs (an equivalent of ~20,000 meals). See here.
• Our PPE shortage data was featured on TechUK.

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• We’ve now rolled out the same data collection process for Nepal. 
• Lots of improvements made to our delivery process, including automatically texting recipients to let them know their care pack is coming, and more.

This week, we had an unexpected guest drop by. Steph, in her own words, describes the encounter below:

“My favorite part of running the warehouse at Dare to Care Packages is meeting so many incredible people.

Someone from last week particularly stood out.

Our busiest days at the warehouse are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday when we prepare and assemble the packages for deliveries. Every Wednesday our donated and purchased products arrive and our incredible volunteers spend hours sanitizing and organizing them.

Thursdays is packing day. We make personalized cards for each package and then put all the products into each package through a socially distant assembly line of high-energy volunteers (while we listen to my ridiculous playlists on speakers)!

Fridays we put the finishing touches on the bags; organizing them by driver and pick-up time, adding in refrigerated items, and leaving some time for quality checks. This past Thursday, as volunteers were coming in and out of the warehouse, I noticed a little dog running about. I soon saw the dog’s owner too and assumed the two were lost. Another volunteer and I asked if we could help the man and he asked what we were up to. We gave him the Dare to Care Packages “shpiel” and then he was on his way. The next day I heard some rummaging near the entrance. When I went to check it out, the same man and his dog were outside. This time, the man was unloading a giant duffle of food and essentials into our donation bin. He explained that everyday two nurses deliver food to him because they are fortunately receiving more than they need. This gentleman, in turn, is getting more than he can eat. And now he is donating the rest to vulnerable people receiving Dare to Care Packages. I spent the next few minutes (and probably hours) smiling! We’re all in this together. Doing a good deed and supporting those on the front lines, in this situation, actually meant that a vulnerable refugee with four children had enough food for a week. There are so many silver linings of being on “lockdown” and the craziness that is our world today and the incredible volunteers and people donating to Dare to Care Packages are surely mine!”