“It’s been hard to have work there over 30 years, and then wake up one day, and not have a job,” Betty said. “It’s just a big shot.”
The Capital Area Food Bank’s Mobile Food Pantry was asked to supply more food for area residents of the small town of Mart that lost one of its largest employers.
Denise Rogers, the pastor of First United Methodist Church, said residents who worked for the nursing home went the last couple of weeks unpaid, leaving many without means to pay utilities, rent or even food.
Former Park Plaza employees are in the middle of filing for unemployment and applying for the little jobs left in Mart and have begun looking as far as Waco for employment.
“This has really affected people,” Rogers said. “But there are people who care, and that’s why we called the Capital Area Food Bank.”
The Capital Area Food Bank Mobile Food Pantry serves as an emergency response team, providing Central Texans with nutritious meals in rural communities. Last year, the Mobile Food Pantry provided 3.24 million pounds of food to more than 226,000 individuals.
Betty said she is having difficulty making ends meet as a sole provider for her 12-year-old son and 31-year-old autistic son.
“There was a lot of sitting and crying the first week, and then week two, I began looking for jobs,” Betty said. “But everything is different for me than when I was looking for jobs 30 years ago. Everything requires a resume and filling out applications on a computer.”
Imogene is also a 30-year employee with Park Plaza who turned to the Capital Area Food Bank mobile pantry for support.
“We never found out anything until the last minute,” Imogene said. “Things are hard, and I’m just trying to make ends meet for me and my husband, but the groceries help a lot.”
Rogers said the loss of Park Plaza nursing home has been hard on the entire community who turn to each other for assistance.
“It’s hard for the resident, employees and community as a whole,” Rogers said. At this point, we would need someone to take over that building, but a lot of changes need to be done, and that probably won’t happen any time soon. All we can do is look for opportunities to help.
