Today we’d like to introduce you to Gracie Garbade.
Hi Gracie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
At age 5, Gracie was always concerned about the homeless people in her community. She would always ask why they lived on the streets and if they had enough food to eat. One day, she asked her parents if she could go door to door to collect canned food for them. She and her Mom devised a plan to collect canned food and donate it to their local food pantry. That year she collected 100 lbs of food by asking family and friends for donations of canned goods and money and donated them to Hill Country Community Ministries. Gracie’s partnership with Hill Country Community Ministries was the beginning of the journey of a little girl with a big heart. Each year since, Gracie has made it her mission to set a goal to collect and donate more pounds of food than the previous year. She has hosted food drives in her neighborhood. She collects donations from neighbors, friends, classmates, and the community. At the age of 10, with the growth of her donations and her determination to feed more people in her community, Gracie formed her own 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Gracies Canned Goods. Since, she has donated over $36,000 and 13,000 lbs of food to many organizations that help with hunger relief, Central Texas Food Bank, Hill Country Community Ministries, Feeding America, Hope Austin, and Backpack Friends. For the past 3 years, Gracie has also partnered with the Cedar Park Police Department to provide a box of food for each Blue Santa family. Despite being busy with her schoolwork and extracurricular activities and being a kid, Gracie continues to work hard, trying to achieve her mission of ensuring everyone in the world has enough food to eat.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Gracie’s nonprofit is a small organization with many helpers. It only consists of her and her family. We also don’t have a big facility to store the donated canned food, so we have to store it in our home until it’s donated.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
While Gracie is still a child, her social and school life remains very busy. While she continues her philanthropy efforts, she is active as a youth. She plays volleyball for her school and a club. She is a part of her school choir program and has many yearly performances. She will graduate from 8th grade this year and move on to high school. What sets Gracie apart is how much care and work she has put into helping others. She has stuck with her hunger relief efforts for over 8 years and continues to do good for her community.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
No luck has played any role. Hard work and determination have helped Gracie reach her goals of donating food and helping as many people as possible.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: gracie_canned_goods
- Facebook: facebook.com/graciesfooddrive
- Twitter: @GraciesCanGoods
