K-State’s Cats’ Cupboard receives much-needed hygiene products from Giving the Basics.
At Cats’ Cupboard, the usual donations include various pantry items and kitchen staples. Recently, a different and much-needed donation arrived: three huge pallets of bar soap and additional pallets of other hygiene products.
Courtesy of Giving the Basics, an organization that distributes hygiene products to the needy, this bulk donation was delivered to Cats’ Cupboard free of charge, besides shipping costs.
“Some of the products that we received through that donation — bar soap, for example — we had previously been unable to keep in stock at the pantry,” said Shelly Williams, Morrison family director of Cats’ Cupboard.
Cats’ Cupboard guests often struggle to provide food for themselves, so they’re even less likely to have access to hygiene products. Giving the Basic’s donation was indispensable to the pantry in terms of quantity and value.
A good problem
The donation was made of incorrectly cut Dr. Squatch soap. The delivery was so large that even a year later, Cats’ Cupboard still has a mostly full barge of soap making the pantry smell phenomenal.
For a while, the cupboard kept two pallets of soap on the shopping floor and one in the back. As soap got selected, they kept consolidating until only one pallet remained.
“When we received the donation, it was kind of overwhelming. It was a lot of soap!” said Williams. “But it was such a great problem to have.”
By Kate Ellwood