Kathy Driver has spent years feeding people. Now she has another way to do it.
Driver recently opened a small free food pantry near the corner of Newsom and Good streets, just a few feet from the curb outside her home.
The pantry had only been open a day when Driver talked about the project, but she had been working for about two years to get one established.
Her reason for wanting one was simple.
“I have some extra food,” Driver said.
Driver said she has developed something of a reputation for feeding people over the years.
“When I had this reputation feeding the homeless and taking clothes to the homeless, well, people just started bringing me food,” she said. “And of course I cook for shut-ins and sick people and stuff like that, and take it to and stuff like that. It’s just something I do.”
Driver considers the work a ministry.
“It’s just a ministry. So God has me doing right now,” she said.
For the past four or five years, Driver has volunteered with several local food ministries.
At Central Baptist Church, she helps cook and serve a meal on the first and third Mondays of each month for people who come to the church for food.
“I’m one of the cooks and I waitress and serve the people when they come in to eat,” she said.
She also volunteers at Bread of Life on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, helping prepare food for distribution.
“There’s not hardly anybody there to help out, but about four or five of us old women,” Driver said.
One thing they could use is someone to help with the heavier work.
“We need somebody that can carry boxes, you know, because we have to carry these heavy boxes of food out to the cars,” she said.
Driver also helps when the East Texas Food Bank holds its monthly distribution.
Her habit of feeding people started before she began volunteering at food pantries.
Driver has been a hairdresser for more than 56 years and still works about three half-days a week at the beauty shop at her home.
When the shop was busier, Driver said she liked to cook casseroles and soups, but she and her husband often had more than they needed. She started giving the extra food to customers.
“And then the word got out, and church people, the sick people, and I don’t know, it just evolved into all that,” Driver said.
“It wasn’t something that I ever thought I’d be doing, or planned to do, or went out to seeking to do. It just kind of, you know, have got to roll into stuff.”
Eventually, she began visiting food pantries as she looked for more food to give away.
“I went to a food bank and I thought, well, I can do this,” she said.
Driver has lived in Mineola since 1965. She remembers attending sixth grade in the two-story school that once stood where the Methodist Ministry Center is now.
She has seen plenty of changes since then, but said Mineola has remained a generous community.
“This is a real benevolent town,” Driver said. “This is a very giving town, very generous town.”
These days, Driver said staying busy is important to her. Her husband lives in a nursing home in the Waco area, and her daughter and grandchild live in Allen.
“I just need to be busy,” she said. “So you do something about my Father’s business, you know. It just kind of rolled into that.”
The afternoon she was interviewed, Driver had another errand on her schedule. She was headed to take a man who has difficulty getting out on his own to Brookshire’s so he could shop.
Driver plans to keep the new pantry near her home stocked, and donations are welcome. Donations of Bibles are also collected. Driver said you can leave all donations by the garage.
Asked about the time she spends helping others, Driver pointed to a familiar scripture.
“To whom much is given, much is required,” she said, “and I’m exceedingly blessed.”