By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Known for their giving spirit, residents of the Castle Country get started at a young age, as seen in the actions of the Carbon High FCCLA, which constantly strives to give back to the community.
One such project, Pastabailties, is an evening designed to address food insecurity and poverty across the area. Organized by Zander Carrillo and Abby Bryant, the duo is seeking donations to help individuals through tough times.
Speaking on the origin of the project, Bryant explained,” We did a survey asking the community about different issues that we think we face, and it turned out that poverty was super high. So we created a project called Pastabailties, where we’re going to offer a free dinner at Farlaino’s Cafe. And then the building right next door, we’re going to be handing out clothing donations, hygiene products and other nonperishable items.”
The event, which takes place on March 9, features both the shop and the pasta dinner at Farlaino’s. The shop will open at 3 p.m., with dinner at 5 p.m. The event will run until 7 p.m. that evening.
To help increase the number of items to give away, the pair is actively seeking donations from the community. “Any clothing items, nonperishable items, any unopened hygiene products would be absolutely amazing,” said Carrillo. “Our donation drop-off is just at Carbon High until Feb. 18, so any donations of those kinds would be amazing.”
The duo also discussed what the most enjoyable part of the project has been, with Carrillo sharing,” It’s just knowing that there’s a chance to make a difference in our local community while also doing this stuff for our FCCLA chapter. It’s just awesome to be able to have a chance to make a real difference at a young age.”
Bryant echoed this sentiment,” I feel like for me the most important thing that I’ve seen is being able to reach out to these different resources in our community, and seeing how willing they are to help the community, just like we are. And it’s just amazing to see that we all want to support each other.”
“We’d just like to say thank you for all the support for all our businesses that we reached out to, and if you are willing to donate, any donation will count, even if it’s just one item,” closed Bryant. “We would love to encourage everyone to come to the event. It’s welcome to everyone in the community.”