You Matter Nashville

Nashville Foster Love Closet with Kara Puckett

• Jason and Mindy Hoover • Episode 6

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Kara Puckett (along with husband Justin Puckett), founder of Nashville Foster Love Closet, shares her journey of starting the nonprofit organization and the impact it has on foster families and children in Middle Tennessee. The organization provides resources and material goods for foster families, including clothes, beds, and other essential items.

Kara emphasizes the importance of ensuring that foster families have the necessary resources to say yes to placements and not turn them away due to financial constraints. She also discusses the various events and programs the organization organizes, such as Girls' Day Out and respite nights, to support foster families and provide a sense of community.


Takeaways

  • Nashville Foster Love Closet provides resources and material goods for foster families and children in Middle Tennessee.
  • The organization ensures that foster families have the necessary resources to say yes to placements and not turn them away due to financial constraints.
  • Events like Girls' Day Out and respite nights provide support and a sense of community for foster families.
  • Volunteers play a crucial role in sorting and organizing donations, providing meals, and helping with events.
  • Monetary donations are needed to help the organization expand and have a physical space.



Special Guest
Kara Puckett

Organization
Nashville Foster Love Closet

You Matter Nashville YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@YouMatterNashville

The Hoover Team
https://www.thehooverteam.com/

Jason & Mindy Hoover (00:00.098)
Hey, Nashvilleians, welcome to the You Matter Nashville podcast, the place where every story we share is a celebration of you, the heartbeat of our community. I'm Jason Hoover, delighted to be one half of your hosting duo. And I'm Mindy Hoover, joining you alongside Jason to bring the stories of inspiring individuals and unsung heroes making a positive impact right here in our hometown. Every episode is about passions, dreams and actions that stitch together the Middle Tennessee community. So if you're looking to get inspired by the good happening around us,

Or if you want to hear from the change makers who believe, just like us, that you matter, then hit that follow button on your favorite podcast platform. And if you are looking to make a move in the middle Tennessee area, and Dan and I are real estate professionals and would be honored to serve you with excellence. Now let's dive into another episode of You Matter Nashville.

Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we love sitting down and talking to community heroes that are making a positive impact in our community. I'm your co -host, Jason Hoover. And I'm Mindy Hoover. And we are so excited to have another amazing guest with us today. We have Kara Packett with Nashville Foster Love Closet with us. Welcome to the podcast. And thank you so much for just taking the time out of your very busy schedule as a mom and nonprofit

runner and just to talk to us and share your heart. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. really appreciate it. Yeah, Kara. So I first want to I want to say thank you to Kathy Mercer. You know, Kathy Mercer is a really good friend of ours. I've worked with her in the past. We're at different places now, but we love her. She is just a joy to know. So how do know Kathy really

So she, I think the first time I came across Kathy, she had messaged me through the foster closet page on Facebook and said, you know, I found this cool auction site where they auction off, you know, different items for really cheap. They're like things that people return to Amazon. And she had bought a couple of cribs off of there and she was like, hey, can you come meet me to pick these up?

Jason & Mindy Hoover (02:18.301)
She has donated to our organizations, our organizations, several times since then. And she is a corporate sponsor of our organization as well. She's just a phenomenal person. She's really sweet and we appreciate that so much. love her. She really is. Of course, I don't want to say too much and give her a big head. Well, thank you for joining us again. And we are excited to get to know

personally, but first, would you share a little bit about Nashville Foster Love Closet? Like, what is it that you guys do specifically? Sure. So we are a nonprofit organization and our mission is that we provide resources and material goods for foster families and children involved in the foster care system here in Middle Tennessee. Fantastic. The foster care system,

I'm not too familiar with it. And I don't know if you've had much experience with the. Well, just being a teacher. And I do have quite a bit of experience with that. And here at Franklin, you know, we have like group homes and different things, you know, that we have to help and cater to as teachers. So. share with us, how did foster, how did the Nashville Foster Love closet come to be?

It was quite by accident. I never had any intention of starting this organization or anything of the likes. I, you know, didn't even know what a foster closet was. My husband and I, almost three years ago, we were going through the process of becoming foster parents. And in one of our classes, they were talking about resources available.

two foster families and they mentioned a foster closet. I was like, well, I don't know what that is. So later that day, I Googled it and found out what it was and looked for the closest ones to us. And the closest one was that I came across in Cookville, which is, you know, over an hour away. So I just, you know, kind of brushed it off and said, okay, whatever, we won't be able to utilize a foster closet. That's fine.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (04:41.813)
A week or two later on a foster parent group on Facebook for Tennessee, there was a woman that posted saying that she was looking for some sort of space to host a foster closet, like a church or just a large storage area. Our church had been very supportive of our foster care journey so far as we were in the process. I thought they might.

be able to help out. So I asked them and they did not have the space. And I, you know, started to help this woman look for another option. And then, I don't know, just one day I was I was talking with my husband, I said, You know, we have a garage, we can just move our cars to the driveway, and keep some clothes in our garage.

Two and a half years later, here we are still running the closet basically out of our home. We do have storage units now that we receive monetary donations. And so we have two very large storage units where we have, you know, beds and, you know, just all of our winter clothes are in storage right now and just other larger items that we can't keep in our garage or kitchen. I understand.

Yeah, because it's not just clothes and like tangible items that kids need every single day. Like they need sometimes a dresser or a bed, a mattress to sleep on. mean, parents take in more kids than they have beds. And so your organization really steps up. Right. And that's exactly the point is we don't want families not having a bed or having the funds to go out and purchase a bed because you don't, you know, as a foster parent, you don't get reimbursed for that kind of stuff. You know, that comes

of your pocket and that adds up so quickly, especially if you are taking a sibling set or something and you need a bunk bed or whatever, that adds up really quick. And so we want to make sure that a family can say yes to the children. We don't want them to have to turn away a placement just because they can't financially afford it. Right. So on that note, would you share a little

Jason & Mindy Hoover (07:04.013)
how you got into fostering? Sure, yeah. So my husband and I, my husband Justin, we, even before we got married, had always talked about wanting to adopt or do foster care. He had his best friend from childhood, him and his twin sister were adopted.

And so that was something that, you know, always kind of resonated with him was the adoption. and my parents were kind of like unofficial foster parents. They never went through the DCS process of becoming foster parents or anything like that, but they were always an open door and an open bed type thing. You know, I remember I have two older brothers and I remember them having friends when we were growing up that maybe had a really rough home life.

and they'd come and stay with us for a while. Or like in college, you know, they'd kind of like adopt these friends to come and live with us, you know, just because they didn't have a place to go home to on breaks and they didn't have, you know, family to go and spend Thanksgiving with. We have like two people like that. I remember in the family pictures that we took at church one year that, you know, they were just they were bonus kids to my parents that, you know, we loved them. They're like a part of the family. We call them brother.

whatever. And so my, parents were always open, you know, to anyone that needed it. And that was, I think something that was really impactful on my side of it. And so when we had our two biological boys, and then we were kind of done with having our own kids and we were like, you know, there's so many kids out there that need a good loving home. And we were ready to, you know, once they got old enough to kind of take that next step and open our home

those other kids. So what was that process like going through it? Yeah, so you you put in an inquiry with either DCS or an agency and then you take what's called the TNK classes, which is your training. If you go through an agency, you have more hours that you have to complete than if you're going with DCS.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (09:24.473)
And the reason being for that is that with an agency, are considered a therapeutic home, which means you can take higher level kids. And so you just receive that additional training for kids that might have more behavioral or medical needs, which is, you know, the each kid has a level one through four. So you mentioned the group homes earlier, those are going to be your like level four kiddos.

that are the highest level. And then in a typical home like ours would be level one, two or three kids. So there's different levels. didn't know that. didn't realize that. A behavioral thing could be like the kid runs away or just might have really bad temper tantrums or things like that.

then you could have, you higher level because of medical needs too. And that might be that the child's in a wheelchair or might be non -verbal, autistic, or, you know, just lots of different anything really. So the levels can change. They can go up levels or they can come down levels. so they will tell you, you know, when placement calls you, they're like, hey, we've got a kid.

You know, they've been in the system for X amount of time. and they'll tell you, know, about the kid, like what kind of behaviors they may or may not have, what kinds of things they like. And, you know, what grade they're in, where they're going to school, what county they're coming from. They, know, they fill you in on all the information. And so they include their level and that information too, when they call you for placement. Okay. So when they get the placement.

a lot of people don't understand is that you don't have like money showing up with the kid and they're going like, hey, here's this wonderful kid and here's $500 to go get them all ready for school tomorrow. It's not really how it works. So if you would tell us about the process of, yeah, the kids coming in and the waiting period before you're able to get any kind of stipend or anything to help these kids get ready like for school.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (11:47.979)
Yeah, so when a kid first comes into custody, you can, I believe I've never done it because we've never received in our home, a child that has come straight into custody. But I believe when they first come into custody, you can go and meet up with their, a caseworker and can go shopping to, you know, get them clothes or whatever, to kind of get them started. And I believe it's

like a $200 limit that you can spend to get them some clothes and toiletries and stuff like that. But you have to schedule that time with the caseworker. And so a lot of times we here at the foster closet will get a family that will text or message us and say, I'm picking up a kid from the hospital and they are coming with just the clothes on their back. And they come and pick

whatever they need and we don't put a limitation on what they can get. know, it's just take, take, get what you need. so, and again, I don't know all the logistics of how that works with getting that, you know, that first like initial amount from DCS. I don't know how that works. That's just what I've heard is that they get that. but yeah.

Sometimes you get a kid that it's called being disrupted if they are moving homes. you if a foster family disrupts a child and they go to from one foster home to another foster home. They're supposed to send everything with the child and that doesn't always happen. Because not all foster parents are perfect. And it's a little frustrating. You know, there are some bad apples, but

they don't always send all the stuff with the kid or sometimes a kid comes and none of their clothes fit. We had that happen this week that someone, you know, messaged me and she said, hey, we just got a new child and she came and none of her clothes fit her. And I know we personally experienced that with our first foster placement. She came and she was overweight and I think hers was more so that she was just embarrassed to tell her foster family that she needed new clothes.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (14:14.529)
So what she did is she ripped the buttons out of all of her pants because she couldn't button them, they were too tight. And then she just wore like an oversized shirt where you couldn't tell that her pants weren't buttoned. So when she came to us and I saw, you know, when we were like washing her clothes and going through stuff and I thought, my goodness, you know, like all of your buttons are missing from your pants. Why is that? And she's like, well, they're just a little tight.

I mean, thankfully for me, like I was able to just walk her down to the garage and let her pick out whatever she needed and she could try them on and everything. But we have a lot of instances like that too, that kids will come and their clothes just don't fit them properly. And so they need new stuff. But yeah, so when a family gets a new placement, they can just reach out to us and say, hey, this is what we need for the child. And then they can come and pick it up.

Those of us that don't live in that world don't truly understand what these kids and even the blessings of the foster parents, but what these kids go through. Just simple things like that. It's wow. So question, whenever they get, is the

they know to contact you to come and they just tell you what they need or do they come and like kind of you help them shop through to get things for them? Yeah. So it's a little bit of both. I offer to them, especially for older kids to allow them to come and pick out what exactly it is that they want. I know we have only ever taken teenage girls and I know teenage girls are very picky.

about what they do and don't like very, you know, and everyone has their own style. you know, and they just, they, that way they can get whatever they want. and I think that also helps them with their dignity when they're at such a vulnerable place in their life. you know, to be able to pick out something that, you know, really just, they give me like, wow. I love.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (16:30.987)
this. I love this color. I love this style. You know, we had one girl that her foster mom when she messaged me said, she likes grungy clothes. Like, I don't know what that means. So you bring her and let her pick out whatever she wants. That's 1990s, isn't it? Right? It's very like

colors and if it's something like it's a baby, you know, I'll usually pick out the clothes and have it ready for the parent to grab just because you know babies don't care what they wear they you wear the same thing. But I do also like to ask the parent and it also just kind of depends on our schedule and our timing that you know again it's run out of our home and I'm a stay at home mom with our kids and if.

the timing works out for them to be able to come and pick out stuff while I'm here, then that works. But sometimes you might be out at the library when they want to come by or whatever. And so I can set stuff out on our front porch for people to just come and grab when it's convenient for them. So it's just a mixture of whatever works best in that given situation for that specific family. OK. Now, what are you guys needing the most?

I'm sure people here foster care, a lot of them bring tons of baby stuff and small children things and toys. I mean, are you in need more of the teenage things and items or is it kind of all over the board? Yeah, teenage, it's kind of all over the board.

This is always a hard question to answer because our needs are always changing. You know, right now in our storage unit, I have maybe like eight cribs and you know, baby beds and I have not had a need for a crib in a while, which is why I have so many they've just kind of built up but then we'll go through waves where all of a sudden I need five cribs in two weeks type thing you know it just sometimes it happens like that that

Jason & Mindy Hoover (18:40.449)
don't need something for a really long time and then all of a sudden I need a ton of them. And it, you know, there have been times where, you know, I have a bin full of size six girl clothes and then all of a sudden there's a ton of different families that need that within a month and then we're completely wiped out of that size. So it just, it very much fluctuates. I would say as far as clothes go, younger boy clothes.

It's probably like mid range, like five through.

like boys 12 are harder for us to come by the ones that we to. yeah, yeah. And I didn't realize that at first because our boys were still really young at the time. So I guess I hadn't really, you know, seen how rough they can be. But the ones that we would get would be, you know, holes in the knees and they're all stained and gross and it wasn't stuff that we could use. And, you know, I was like, well, why can't we get any good stuff in this size? And then someone mentioned that to me.

I said, that makes sense. Is there a specific story that just really touched you in a deep way that kind of made you go, OK, all the things that I'm doing, it really is making a difference, and this is why I do what I do? Yeah, so I have lots of these moments. It's not easy running the closet. And it's volunteer work. I do it as a job, but it's

a job, don't get paid for it. But so there's a lot of times that sometimes I'm like, know, we just need to throw in the towel or whatever. But I have a lot of these little moments where, you know, I definitely feel that that, you know, it just tugs my heartstrings. It's a good reminder as to, know, why we are doing this and why it is so important. I think my favorite one was from a kid that, you know, wasn't even a kid that we were serving.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (20:43.789)
had come with a youth group from Knoxville to volunteer one weekend and there were about 15 of them, teenage high school kids. And he, when they were done, came up to me and said, you know, I think what you're doing is really cool. I think this is super awesome. And he had told me that he was adopted out of foster care when he was about nine or 10 years old. And he said that it meant a lot to him to be able to

you know, serve kids that were like him in the same situation as him and make a difference. And, you know, I just I really loved that moment because again, I wasn't even a kid that we were serving, but he could see, you know, the impact and it was so important to him because he was like these kids, you know, in the same situation as these kids. Yeah. So that was something that I think back to is it's just very sweet. Yes. And just

just, I think goes to show how meaningful this organization is and the impact that it has on the kids and families that we serve. And, and you do it out of, you know, gratitude that you want, you're able to help. And so you do help and it's, it's always refreshing though, to have somebody on the outside tell you, Hey, you're making a difference. And that means that means more than money a lot of times.

Yeah, absolutely. A pastor at my husband's church when we first started dating, he used to say, it's a blessing to be a blessing to other people. that's something that always really stuck with me. I come from a family that always, we volunteered and gave back a lot when I was a kid. And I think that's still important now and something that's really instilled in me.

You know, I have the means and the capability to do it. And it is it is so meaningful and impactful to this community. For sure. It's a major impact because I can't imagine what people you know, those kids are already going through so much and it's, you know, people like you that love on them that, you know, it makes their world a little bit better.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (23:09.057)
And to give the support to the people who are the backbone in the homes every day, like you. And, you know, it is a financial burden anyway you look at it. So just having that relief, you know, it's just so helpful. And you guys have so many things in your closet that you give. Is there something that you're like, man, I wish we had the space to give this out or to have this? Yeah, I think our biggest thing right

in the growth of our organization is monetary donations so we can work towards having more of a space. you know, we're usually able to get the physical donations that we need. Even if we don't have it, our community shows up so big. You know, I just shared a post this morning on our Facebook page. We have an event for teen girls coming

It's a shopping day for 40 teen girls and their foster moms and it's our annual one and it's it's such a fun event. It's so awesome. We love this event so much But they get to you know go shopping for clothes and shoes and accessories and all this stuff and I shared a post over the weekend about About needing more clothes and things like that 14 girls for this event and I shared a picture

our Nolensville drop off location. It's, you know, someone's front porch and just her front porch was just filled with bags and boxes of teen women's clothes and shoes and all the stuff. so the community always, they show up when we need stuff they provide. And it's so amazing seeing how the community supports our organization. But I think our biggest thing really is, you know, our next

where we would like to get to in the future is having an actual space for our organization. And for that, our biggest thing is monetary donations. And, you know, again, it's out of our garage and the storage units. But I think it would just, you know, give the kids more dignity to be able to come into an actual

Jason & Mindy Hoover (25:30.975)
and pick clothes off of a clothing rack instead of a tote that I pull out of the garage and stick on my kitchen table. Regardless, they're still getting what they need. That's what's important. But I think having a physical space is our ultimate goal and what we're really working towards. So that's, think, our biggest need is getting those. That would be.

those recurring donations and corporate sponsors and things like that to help get us to that goal. Okay. So you mentioned, was it your second annual? Third annual. Third annual. Third annual. And I was reading on your website, which is, what's the URL for your website? It's Nashville Foster Love Closet .com. Okay.

on there, you had mentioned some other events that happen. What are some of those events that you guys put on or participate in? Yeah, sure. So we have our our third annual Girls Day Out coming up. And like I mentioned, that's an event for tween and teen girls. So it's girls ages 10 to 15, not 15, sorry, 10 to 18. And they come out, they get to go shopping for all those things that I mentioned. We have a

and there's little toppings, you know, like gummy bears and &Ms and all kinds of stuff that they get to, you know, put on their popcorn and a photo booth. They get their nails painted. This year, we have people that are coming out to teach them how to make earrings. You know, they'll get to make and take home their own little clay earring sets and bracelets. And we have a person that's coming out to

called a sound bath, I think is what it's called. It's like a relaxation meditation type thing, which is really cool. they're gonna do that with the girls. And yeah, so that's a super fun event to spoil our teen girls. And on the other end of that, we have a teen boy event that we do every spring. The guys we take them to the Stars and

Jason & Mindy Hoover (27:49.015)
bowling alley entertainment center and they get to do unlimited arcade games for an hour and they get to do laser tag and bumper cars and then we give them pizza and they get to pick out donations to take home things like you know puzzles and games clothes shoes gift cards things like that and so that's a really fun between and teen boys

And then our other biggest event is we have a quarterly what's called respite night. So respite in the foster care world is typically when you are a foster parent, if you were going out of town or, know, for like an adults only, know, like mom and dad vacation or whatever, and you need someone to watch your kids, you can send them to another foster home that will,

provide what's called respite for you. So the kids will go and stay whether it's a weekend or a whole week or however long, know, and we have respite nights where parents drop their kids off and it's just a couple of hours. It's three hours each time and we feed the kids dinner and there's, you know, arts and crafts and games and we watch a movie. If it's nice out, they get to go play on the playground.

Two respite nights ago we had a Mr. Richie the Science Guy came out and did like a science magic show for the kids which they just, you know, they were so enthralled with. They loved it. It was so fun.

And it's, you know, just free childcare for a couple hours. The parents get to get out and go grab dinner or go see a movie. I had one parent that told me one time, because I always ask them and you know, we have a lot of regulars, but also there's new parents, but I'll ask the regulars, know, like, what are you doing tonight? And one of them one time she was like, I'm just going to go home and sleep. It's like, I love it. I love it. You know, do you do you? But we know how it is. And a lot of times

Jason & Mindy Hoover (30:00.555)
You know, there's people that don't have family here. You know, they've moved and they live in a different place than where their family is. And so it's, hard for them to get a night out or a couple hours away or, know, anything like that. And it's expensive to pay a babysitter. And you can't fill from an empty cup, you know, you can't pour into your kids and give them what they need if you don't have that rest for yourself. So we think that that's.

a super important event and it's fun for the kids. The kids always have a great time and love playing and they get to take a couple of books and a stuffed animal home each time. And that's great. Sometimes if we have them, we'll we have like frozen meals for the parents to take home as part of our meal love program. And that way they have a meal to pop in the oven, you know, whenever they need it. If they're just having a rough night, like, I don't feel like cooking, you know, they have something.

But yeah, so those are those are our main events that we do throughout the year. Those are all amazing. And you had mentioned that, you know, having all the teenage girls, I would love to coordinate with you. And we have our big prom dress giveaway that I with my nonprofit every year. And so I would love to be able to get all those foster girls here. Like we always have some that come and we have group homes that come but

I don't think a lot of the foster parents really know of our organization. So getting that word out to them, I would love for all of them to come and get a free prom dress. Yeah, absolutely. And that's so good to know because we sometimes get donated prom dresses and we don't keep them. always pass them along to like I gave some to Kathy, think. She probably brought them to me. wonderful. I love that. Yeah, I remember I gave her a couple of dresses just because it's

not something that we have the bandwidth for. And so I figured just, you know, donate it to another organization like that. And I know they're the one that I'd always heard of was fairy godmother, I think was the name of it or something like that. And they did something similar where they provide prom dresses for, you know, families in need. But yeah, we would love to coordinate that and get the word out to our families.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (32:24.429)
I most definitely love the dress has been around. This is going to be our 15th year. next year we serve about 600 girls every year. That's pretty big. We have about 4 ,000 dresses. So, and the girls who come from the group homes or foster care, we don't just let them get one for prom. We also give them other dresses for like homecoming and school dances and so that they have it. Cause I mean, that's not something that I know a foster parent can go and just fish

$200, $300 here and there every time there's a dance. So yeah, absolutely. I love that. That's awesome. Yep. Let's get that going. Absolutely. So Carol, how has this impacted you personally? How does this matter to you that keeps you going? Yeah. I mean, like I said, sometimes I just want to throw in the towel.

And we all get that. We all understand. mean, burnout is real. Yeah, absolutely. But it's just hearing those little stories about how it makes a difference. And I think also being a foster parent myself, I'm in the trenches with them. You know, I know what it's like to be there at the front line of it. I know how hard it can be. And again, I don't want

not being able to buy clothes for a kid to be the reason that they're turned away. you know, a lot of people don't know there are kids that sleep in DCS offices because they can't find a home for them. I've heard of a kid being in a DCS office up to like a week and a kid shouldn't have to sleep on a cot in the DCS office. And that also pulls the DCS workers, you know, they're overworked and burned out and there's such a high turnover with them.

because they have to do stuff like that, that, you know, go in and sit with a kid overnight. it's hard on everyone. And I think it's, you know, just a small part that we can do to help these families. And that is important to me to be able to serve those families. And, you know, I tell people that I don't think anyone else is crazy enough to do.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (34:48.863)
to do this. And I don't want the foster closet to cease to exist. And so I just, you know, I keep pushing on and our volunteers are such a big part of this. I could not do this without our volunteers and without our board of directors, know, they are our VP and our, you know, our secretary and all of them, you know, they, jump in a zoom call.

once a month for our board meeting, they also, they're involved. They show up to the events, they help with delivering donations. They, you know, listen to me when I want to pull my hair out and they're my cheerleaders and help keep pushing me on. And, you know, just everyone that helps is, I couldn't do it without them. really is, it's a group effort. But seeing

everyone comes together, the volunteers, the donors, the families. You we have so many families that when they're done with something, when their kids outgrow something, they bring this stuff back to us. And, you know, they keep the cycle going and just seeing how everyone comes together to help serve these kids and make a difference in their lives. just, it's what keeps pushing me on, you know, and why I understand the importance of it.

this organization. seems like you have a tight knit community of foster parents that help each other. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think we all realize that we're in this together. So stronger together than apart. For sure. understand that. So when it comes to volunteers, I know it can be troublesome sometimes to try to get the manpower.

in the times that you are needing them. So is there a place that people can go to see like a list of times or list of ways that they can help your organization? Yeah, so there's lots of ways to get involved with volunteering. And the great thing about volunteering is it costs nothing other than giving of your time. You know, we've mentioned the ways that people can

Jason & Mindy Hoover (37:08.523)
donate and give back, but not everyone has items to donate, or has the means to donate if it's like, you know, financial, like monetary donations. So, but you know, this, always say, not everyone can be a foster parent, not everyone can donate, but everybody can do something to help. And we have lots of different ways to help sorting and organizing donations. So coming here

sorting clothes by size and gender, tossing out the icky gross torn stuff and keeping the good stuff. And then we have our Meal Love program. So we have volunteers that make meals for families. We have a deep freezer that we keep here where we keep frozen meals. So if family comes to shop, I can hand them a meal on their way out. And so that's another way. Or we also have once a week

I pick a different family. have like a sign up form and I pick a family and email our meal volunteer list and say, this is our family of the week. They live in Hendersonville or East Nashville or wherever. And the volunteers that are on that list can, you know, if they live in the area and have the time and want to, you know, pick up some ingredients and make a meal and drop it off to the family. we arranged that with

donation transportation. someone has donations but can't drop them off at one of our donation sites, they can, you know, I'll send out an email to that list and say, you know, we have donations in Brentwood that need to make it to one of our Nolensville sites and can get a volunteer to go and pick those things up. Or if it's also like a larger item, like a bed or a large dresser and the foster family doesn't have

truck or whatever they need to pick it up, we can get a volunteer with a truck. And then lastly is our events. So we talked about the different events that we have and we need volunteers to run those events to, you know, help set things up or play with the kids at rest at night or, you know, help the girls shop at girls stay out and stuff like that. So we do other things throughout the year

Jason & Mindy Hoover (39:23.085)
our Egg My Yard fundraiser and we have volunteers that go and hide Easter eggs in people's yards the night before Easter. I love that. Yes, it's so fun. We love that fundraiser. So, so fun. But I want to touch on that one really quick because I saw I read about that one and it's so neat. They go what between 7 and 11 p and hide the eggs so that your kids wake up in the morning and they're like, where was this when we

way. yeah, it's really as genius. It's a great fundraiser. This year, we've raised almost $8 ,000 with that fundraiser. And then yeah, it was huge. was so big. You know, last year was our first year doing that one. And we raised a little over 4000, I think last year, so a huge influx of people signing up for that with our second year of it. We're hoping for an even bigger next year, we already have

like 9 ,000 Easter eggs sitting in our storage unit ready for next year that we had. We wait until after Easter and we go out and we tell people like, go buy Easter eggs. They're like 90 % off, know, and you can get a bag of Easter eggs for like five cents or whatever. And we just talk up on them then. But

That's a super fun one. And with that also people can donate towards sponsoring a foster family's yard. So even if it's five bucks, know, somebody will pay $25 to get their yard egged then they can throw on an extra five bucks and that goes towards, you know, a kid's yard. And so I think we had 70 or 80 foster kids that, you know, got Easter eggs this year and they were hidden in their yard. And, it's really awesome. Such a fun

do you get a lot of like youth groups to come and help or school like youth, like teen groups and everything. I know they're always looking for volunteer hours. yes, absolutely. And kids that are in college, I know if they have the hope scholarship, they have to complete, think like eight service hours and so, I didn't know. cause I, I had the hope scholarship when I was in college, but we didn't have to

Jason & Mindy Hoover (41:40.329)
service hours, then I think I love that they do that now. yeah, and we the just just serve club is a club at several of the high schools and they don't have a required amount. But we have connections with them and get you know, a lot of kids from the just serve clubs at like Nolensville and Brentwood Ravenwood, they helped with the Easter egg stuff. And yeah, the kids are awesome. We love the teenagers. They're so great. And

super fun to get them involved. yeah. Yeah. So there's lots of ways to get involved and help out. And I think you asked about like times to sign up. Usually we don't have specific times. Like I said, you can, if you go to our website or our Facebook page, you can find the volunteer link and it's just a Google form that you can fill out.

and you select which volunteer opportunities you're interested in and I add you to the email list. So that way when we have those opportunities come up, I send out an email blast to all of those people and they know I sent one this morning for all those clothes that we got in Nolensville, all the teen girl clothes. usually when it's sorting clothes, I have open volunteer time is what I call it. And so I'll just say, you know, for the next two weeks we have open volunteer time.

again, I'm a stay at home mom and I'm usually here. We sometimes go out and do stuff. Me and the kids will like go to the park or go to the library or, know, whatever, but it's, you know, we'll be gone for a couple hours and then be back. But I try to schedule this stuff that we do going out around, you know, like if I have a volunteer coming over, it's okay. We're not going out during this time. We'll go out later today or whatever. I'm really flexible and can do days, nights, weekends. So

you know, it accommodates the volunteers and what they can do. And, you know, kids are welcome to come. had a volunteer over two weeks ago and she brought her, I think, three kids she brought with her little ones and they just played in our playroom with our boys. you know, we have all kinds of games and puzzles and toys and snacks and drinks and, you know, we can put on Netflix for them or, you know, whatever. But,

Jason & Mindy Hoover (44:04.705)
we don't discriminate against the volunteers. Like come any day, come any time, bring all your kids, I don't care. We need the manpower and again, we love our volunteers. I know having kids is a lot of times I see, you know, mom's post on Facebook and they'll say, where can I volunteer that I can bring my child with me? Those places don't, or you know, your kid has to be a certain age. it's like, I don't care, bring your

We'll love on them. They're part of the family, you know? I get it. I do the same. I'm like, please just come help. And you're also setting a really great example for your kids to give of your time. You know, I mean, how, how I came and talk. I mean, what a wonderful legacy to leave for your kids that, Hey, I remember when I was little and my mom used to go and volunteer. Nice to go with her. I mean, those are positive thoughts that you are, you know, leaving with your kids. So.

I love that you allow them to come and do that. Yeah, absolutely. So they can find out how to volunteer on your website, which is nashvillefosterlovecloset .com or your Facebook group is, is that also the same name? same name. Yeah. Nashville Foster Love Closet. Perfect. And then from there you can get on the list and figure out how to help out. Yeah. I love

Well, Karen, this has been such a pleasure and you are a blessing to so many. I know without knowing personally, but I know that you impact so many more lives than you even realize. so, you know, from us, we thank you for that, for making a difference in people's lives and these kids' lives. It's not easy and it usually is a thankless job. I don't even want to call it a job, really.

but you don't always get the appreciation that you should, like with all the other foster care parents out there. So a lot of love goes out to you and to everybody that's involved in that. So thank you so very much. And your whole family, because this is a whole family project. This is a whole family love that you are putting out there, because I know you couldn't do it by yourself, and they have to put up with it. My husband, especially.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (46:27.679)
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Next week we're going to have him on and we'll get a whole different take. There's just crap everywhere. I once had a garage. Right. So prayers for this year that you have these corporate sponsorships that come in, you're able to get a space that's going to be able to accommodate everything. You'll be able to get your home back, your garage back, all positive things. just hope for you guys.

I'm going to enjoy watching you guys grow over the next few years. you again, Kare, for joining us today. And thank you, everybody, for tuning in and listening. One more time, I want to encourage you to please go sign up and you can do that on their website or on their Facebook. We will definitely have that information in the show notes for you. And also,

We always like to follow the people that we interview and we're going to be following you guys too. So, and get on that list as well. So maybe we can help spread some of that information. That's right. But thank you for listening. And it's always a pleasure to be with y 'all and Nashville just always remember that you do matter and you probably matter a lot more than you even know. Thank you for listening. And that brings us to the end of another episode of You Matter Nashville.

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