Back in 1996, Sister Margaret Regina Murphy
wanted to do something to help the hungry,
the homeless, the sick and the needy.
And her love of candy was the inspiration.
And from that, Candy for Caring was born.
I'm joined with by two of the volunteers
of this group today, Marie Whitd
Deborah Keel to tell us all about it.
And this was a fun story ladies,
that was sent to us on Facebook
of you've got to learn more abot
this group and they're doing su.
Great, wonderful thing.
So thank you for both being
here on Great Day Live.
We're thrilled to be here.
So tell me a little
bit about how you all got invol.
And candy for caring.
I retired from Red Cross and after I retired,
a lot of my friends were already
working at the Candy House.
So I just went along with them
and started about 2008, I think.
Yeah, for me. Wonderful, yeah. Myself,
I was taught by the sisters
of Charities in grade school.
Most was at Sacrament,
so I've always been aware and
had a long time relationship
with the community. And when I
I was at Nazareth nursing
home and one of the sisters,
my mother moved into Nazareth home in early
2001 of the sisters was leaving to go.
I volunteer at Candy for Caring,
and we had a conversation in the parking lot.
And the next time I ended up
there 10 years ago, let's say. o
it's, it's such a simple concepo
full of love, right? Like,
it's one of these that I read
about it and I'm like, oh,
they make candy and then the prs
go to help other nonprofit. Duh.
I'm like, what a mind blowing thing, right?
We have approximately 55 volunts
and to backtrack a little bit,
we used to work under the umbrella of the
Jewish Foundation and when the hospital,
Saint Mary and Elizabeth Hospital was sold,
we were located in a couple of
houses over in LaSalle behind t.
So we had to close because those
houses were going to be sold.
Well, at the same time COVID hit, so we were.
Down for a couple of years.
So then we started thinking aboe
would like to gear this back up and so
we talked to our volunteer committee.
We are all volunteer.
No one is paid a dump.
Our volunteer committee and we started
looking for a new home and we ld
all over Louisville at different spots
and just could not find the right fit.
We had a very generous offer.
Downtown, but we didn't think or
elderly volunteers would go downtown.
So anyway,
we revisited Saint Simon and Jude and talk.
Deborah talked to the business manager there,
and that business manager was vy
receptive for us finding space there.
So two years ago we started.
Getting plans and getting back .
In April of last year,
we opened in a couple of the old school
rooms in the actual basement of Saint
Simon and Jude Church on Hazelw.
What are the charities that youl
are able to help? Oh, I have ho.
Oh, my goodness. There's a list.
OK, that's good.
If you have any, many dare to c.
Family Health Clinic, Family Scholar House.
Harbor House. Healing Place.
Kindergard, House Honor Flight,
Schumann Social Service Center,
Sister Visitors S Louisville Ministry,
Southwest Louisville Ministry,
Saint John Center,
Saint Matthews Area Ministries,
U of L James Brown Cancer Cente,
Patient Care and Uniting Partnes
for Women and Children.
And we just finished giving
away $23,000 this year. Really.
From candy sales.
Yes.
Yesterday
we had a sale at Our Lady of Pe.
Today we're having a sale in
the lobby of U of L Hospital.
Tomorrow at the lobby.
That's how it works. You all wil
take the candy that's made and n
go to these different locations
and sell order candy from us.
We don't have a retail set up,
but you can't order candy
and come and pick it up.
That's great and the best thingo
do is to call the phone number.
If no one answers, leave your name and
number and someone will call you back.
Or the phone message will tell
you when the next sale will be,
like tomorrow from 1:50 by the cafeteria
Unaville Hospital on Jackson St.
We will have a candy sale. Do
you all decide like okay we neeo
many bourbon balls or we need so
many chocolate covered pretzels?
Like how do you decide to make e
you don't have too much of one thing?
Well, we kind of gauge it.
I mean we've been doing this foa
long time and we kind of have an idea,
you know the favorites.
In September everything is doub,
double, double because
Christmas is such a a big deal.
Like we may have an order
for 100 boxes of fudge.
Yeah, so do you all need help with supplies
or anything that you want to let people
know you need trays, you need c?
We actually have had some donats
and we get some donations of soe
product that we use to make the candy.
We are looking to buy another
large commercial freezer and
some carts but with the price o.
Food products that we use to make the candy.
We really try to be good stewars
of the money that we make,
and we do a lot of individual shopping
to find when Kroger has butter on sale,
everybody pitches in and buys butter,
digital coupons,
digital coupons and that kind of thing.
But we're always in need of papr
products and that kind of stuff.
As far as trays and utensils and stuff,
we have that.
But we it's the large things
sometimes that we need,
like another commercial freezer
and we also need places where
we can go to sell our candy.
We do some of the craft fairs,
but you
need some locations to get arou.
We need to look at some of these names.
It looks amazing and I want to remind
everybody if you want to help t.
Donate supplies.
Or maybe you want to just
have a location for them.
All you have to do is go
to Candy for caring calm.