All right, so what we're gonna do here is we're gonna take these items right here and we're gonna put them in these boxes.

The Pantry of Broward is a non-profit organization that focuses on serving seniors 60 years of age and older.

These seniors are living on the low fixed income, way below the poverty lines that are set forth by the government.

And we help them with a food box to offset their costs and their needs throughout the month.

The Pantry of Broward opened in 2008 by a philanthropist, BJ Buntrock.

She had volunteered at many food pantries in the community, and saw that this population needed to be handled in a different way.

They needed other services, they needed different types of attention.

And when she started the Pantry of Broward, it was that mission in mind.

They were people who worked their entire lives, but they had outlived their retirement.

These were folks that didn't expect that they were gonna need help.

These were people that thought, "I would be able to get by," and they weren't.

Did you get a chance to send those photos to the group of volunteers that were here?

We have the pre-packaged boxes.

We have the pre-packaged bags of fruits and vegetables, but we do have what we call farmer's market, and we allow the clients to come in and pick what they like.

You know, some don't like apples, some don't like this.

So we give them that opportunity.

A lot of them need help with phone bills, or electric bills, or water bills.

We also have a program where we do some minor repairs for them.

So it's a whole complete package of whatever we can do to help these people navigate through life.

I was going through a very hard time on a fixed income, and I needed some help.

I just didn't know how to go about it.

The Pantry not only helped me to feed myself, but after eight years of not being able to have a Thanksgiving with my grandchildren, or a Christmas with my grandchildren.

I was able to get gifts from my grandchildren that the pantry gave me.

And they also gave me the Thanksgiving dinner.

And this is a blessing not only for me, but for everybody that is my age and that needs the help.

This is a true blessing.

When we opened our doors and we started to serve the senior population, we noticed that Broward County, in particular, had this tremendous amount of senior citizens who were raising their grandchildren.

We affectionately refer to them as our grand families.

And these grand families are, again, seniors who maybe not be 60 years, sometimes they're in their 50s, or a little bit younger, but they have assumed either temporary or full custody of their grandchildren at a moment's notice.

And they too are gonna need the help.

These are grandparents that are struggling in their own right, and they wanna keep their grandchildren out of an already over-burdened foster care system.

So they really, really are special individuals, because they're obviously grieving what's happening with their own child, but they recognize the need, and where they can step up and help in taking care of their grandchildren.

I've been coming here for 16 years.

They help my grandchildren, like with school supplies and stuff like that, Christmas.

I feel so happy when I come here.

I feel very happy.

Me and my family, we feel very happy.

It's been hard for me.

One thing I can say about the Pantry, they love all families.

They're such a wonderful people.

Wonderful.

So that's why I'm still here.

Our case managers on a daily basis are getting phone calls and trying to help our seniors through systems that sometimes are well far beyond food and food insecurities.

Particularly for our grand families.

We will sometimes get calls to help them navigate the school system, this day and age, having to log onto portals and websites and just to get the grades.

We've had seniors who are maybe trying to navigate something with a landlord, or a living situation.

And we'll step in and help in those situations.

If anything, you know about the senior population, it's about trust, it's about a relationship, and it's knowing that they can count on us to help them through anything they need, even if it's far beyond food.

We are a small organization, less than 10 fulltime people, but we have a robust volunteer force that, without them, undoubtedly, we would not be able to do what we do.

They come here daily, they work in our warehouses, they interact with our clients, they help us maintain that relationship, they help us maintain the storylines of what's happening in some of these clients' lives.

I had one group here the other day, and they have this one person, she's very sweet, and everything we do makes her cry, because she gets so emotional, and she says, "Oh my God, I feel like I'm doing something."

You know?

And most of them are just happy to help.

They feel like they're doing things, they feel like their life has a purpose.

You know, some of them are retired, most of them actually are retired, and they wanna feel like they're doing something with their lives, and they just feel very happy.

And especially the ones that work in the distribution area, they get to actually meet the clients, and they know the clients.

I have one volunteer here that's been here for longer than I've been, and she greets them and, "How are you today?

And how's everything?"

So there gets to be a comradery between the clients and the volunteers.

What's on the list for the boxes?

It's just been an incredibly overwhelming experience.

You get to see the people here that you're helping, you get to interact with the volunteers, the staff that works here.

It's a very tight-knit community.

The clients that I have met and have interacted with, it's just been such a pleasant experience in terms of, you know, seeing them being so happy to receive, you know, some of the food and some of the help that we provide to them on a consistent basis.

We have an expression here, you know, "Food doesn't take a holiday, and people are hungry all year round."

We appreciate the need, and the fact that people come out during the holidays, and we get this overabundance of food and donations, but we need it all year round, because we have to give this food out all year round.

Same thing with the volunteers.

I get an influx of volunteers at this time of the year, but I try to accommodate as many of them as possible, 'cause I know people wanna feel needed and wanted.

This is not helping people from a distance.

This isn't helping people through another organization or through another charitable group.

We see our clients day in and day out.

We know them on a first-name basis.

We're familiar with their grandchildren.

We may be helping some of their grandchildren through school projects or through something with sports.

So they really do become a family.

You know, before I came here, I didn't know that there were that many people out there that were hungry.

I wasn't aware.

I worked in the non-profit world, but not in this kind of capacity.

And it's just made a very, very big difference in how I look at things now.

This is absolutely a passion and a calling for all of us, and we find such value and such pride in being able to help anyone here in Broward County who could use our services.