BELTON, Texas—On Saturday, Aug. 9, as part of this year's Welcome Week, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) students participated in Love CTX. The annual event is designed for students to discover service opportunities and grow closer to their Cru Groups by serving the community.
For the sixth year, UMHB's Love CTX event supported One More Child, which provides Christ-centered services to vulnerable children and struggling families. Nearly 450 UMHB students packed 28,000 meals and wrote notes for Belton ISD students. This year, the local H-E-B in Belton donated all food items for the meals, equaling more than $16,000 in in-kind donations.
H-E-B representatives expressed their excitement for being part of this effort. "H-E-B is proud to partner with UMHB and One More Child to support their mission to serve our community," shared Amy Flores, H-E-B's area community coordinator. "H-E-B is a firm believer in Texans Helping Texans, and it is important to be committed and involved in the communities we serve. That is why it is such an honor to work alongside UMHB students as they do meaningful work to serve our community with a purpose."
One More Child has deeply valued the long-standing relationship. "One More Child is happy for another year of partnership with UMHB and the opportunity to feed more Belton students than ever before, thanks to H-E-B's generosity," explained Joanna LeMasters, One More Child's director of initiative engagement.
This annual community collaboration is a meaningful example of living with purpose at UMHB. "We are so thankful that we get to help impact our community in this way. Having H-E-B partner with us on this project for the second year has been a huge blessing," said Katy Hartt, UMHB's associate director of Student Leadership and Organizations. "Together we are able to help provide meals to our BISD students who struggle with food insecurities."
The meals will go to Belton ISD's Project Heartbeat program to help students who may not have food at home and will be distributed throughout the school year. "Thank you for filling our care closets, feeding our students nights and weekends, and giving us time for teachers and staff to spend with their students, bonding over snacks," said Christina Wilson, McKinney Vento liaison, coordinator for Project Heartbeat with Belton ISD.
