One Stolen Trailer Could Mean Game Over For One Nonprofit

Can you imagine dedicating your life to serving others, just to have your entire purpose taken away in one night? That’s how Kathy Stanley, of Colorado, feels today. Her van and food trailer were stolen from the church parking lot where they are stored nightly. Stanley runs a nonprofit organization, called Joy’s kitchen, which focuses daily on delivering food to underprivileged families in need. The organization, which she runs with the help of her 80-year old father, manages to feed about 250 families every week with the help of their two food trailers.

Since its beginning seven years ago, after partnering with Foodbank of the Rockies, Stanley has made it a point to give back to her community in the best way she could. Thankfully, the business has been able to grow to make a great impact on these families. However, the future of her organization now stands in limbo. Along with the trailer that was stolen, there was also about $10,000 worth of stolen tools which were owned by her father. Stanley’s father helps with deliveries for the organization and uses the tools to work as a contractor and make supplemental income. The theft not only wiped out progress made by Joy’s Kitchen, but basically put Kathy’s father out of business.

Even with all of the unfortunate events that occurred, Stanley remains optimistic that her mission with Joy’s Kitchen will continue. Somehow, someway she remains adamant that they will keep delivering to all the families in need. Although the thieves might have committed a crime, she feels for them stating, “ I can’t imagine the place you would be to have to do that”.

Stanley’s situation brings up a precarious fact. A lot of nonprofits run on shoestring budgets and rely heavily on donations or other sources of funding like grants. Although donations do help, they can often only do so much, and many organizations need resources available to them in greater volume to complete their mission. Online resources like GrantWatch are great for finding available grants for these nonprofits.

We can’t allow nonprofit organizations doing great work for their communities suffer merely because of lack of resources. Everyone can play their part in helping them grow and succeed, and thus benefit the communities that we live in.