There’s a small blue shed filled with shelves of donated goods from piles of toiletries to a freezer full of locally sourced meat behind Mt. Pleasant Community Church in Crawford.
Led by Board of Education Chair Becky Soto and Jill Kort, the divisional business and finance manager with UGA’s Franklin College, a small cohort of volunteers spent a recent Saturday morning packing the donations into organized bins for The CAYA House’s February donation delivery.
The CAYA House, a local nonprofit providing families in Oglethorpe County with consistent fresh food and household essentials, is different because it offers monthly donation deliveries to families. These donations range from fresh produce and eggs to laundry detergent and toothpaste. They are also able to provide aid based on specific needs and dietary restrictions.
“We try to provide a more well-rounded and more specific (donation) to try to be more specific in what they need,” Kort and Soto said, finishing each other’s sentence.
CAYA House stands for “Come As You Are,” a pivotal part of the organization’s mission. Most families that are a part of the program now were referred by word of mouth.
“It really is about ‘We don’t care how you got into the situation. We don’t care anything about your background.’ It really is come as you are,” Soto said.
The nonprofit’s mission also hopes to inspire those who donate.
“We wanted everybody that wanted to be involved to be able to be involved in whatever method or manner they could be,” Soto said.
Expanding outreach is an important goal for Kort and Soto, who would like to partner with anyone who would like to be involved with the CAYA House. They already have partnered with local grocers, students at several schools and several community members who just wanted to pitch in.
“Not only is it a mechanism for people to get help, it’s a mechanism for people to help where they can,” Soto said. “Not everybody maybe can do a lot, but if you’ve got a lot of people that can do a little, it makes a huge difference.”
In February, the CAYA House hosted its second annual Red Velvet Cupcake Fundraiser where community members flocked to the group’s Facebook page to place orders. The fundraiser raised around $4,400, helping Kort and Soto fulfill one of their biggest goals: a CAYA House-sponsored local scholarship.
“We both noticed when our kids were seniors (that) your best bet to getting some scholarship money is your local scholarships,” Soto said.
Partnering with and giving back to local students is significant to the organization’s efforts in spreading its mission.
“I’m such a kid advocate and an educational advocate,” Soto said. “The fact that they’re learning about people in need and how to help people, I think, is a huge deal.”
The duo hopes to continue giving back to the community while also inspiring others to do the same.
“It doesn’t matter what someone else says, doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks, doesn’t matter what someone’s perspective is of someone else’s situation,” Kort said. “It is, do they need immediate help, and can we help them.”