Texas Border Business
By Amanda L. Alaniz
EDINBURG, TEXAS – APRIL 16, 2020 – As communities continue to face challenges and change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, compassion and kindness are more important than ever before.
UTRGV’s Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) remains committed to helping the university community cope by providing Bible studies via Zoom and finding ways to continue to serve food.
BSM opened its pay-what-you-can café BSM Global Blends last year, serving sandwiches with an assortment of beverages. Customers enjoy the meal, and the only obligation upon leaving the restaurant is a moral one – a monetary donation based on what they can afford.
Now, they’ve made some changes to be able to continue to serve their patrons.
The restaurant on Thursdays would offer free lunch meals to customers. Now, to continue serving those free meals, they’ve shifted to “Drive-Thru Free Lunch.”
BSM volunteers are asking customers to sign-up via their Facebook page to ensure they’ll receive the free meal, and the volunteers have a count for how many meals they need to prepare.
Gabriela Izaguirre, a Campus Missionary intern, said the first time BSM held a drive-thru food service, they handed out more than a dozen plates. She thinks the numbers will grow as more people learn about what they’re doing for students, and recognizes how important something like this can be for the community.
“I think it’s really, really significant. I think it shows a love for your community, a love for people,” she said. “It’s something encouraging in a time when most people are stressed. When people are in the drive-thru, we try to ask if we can pray for them, give them positive attention and try to show that we care.”
People who sign up can include others they know who may need a meal, like family members.
Aside from the drive-thru free lunches on Thursdays at 12:30 p.m., BSM has opened its café for drive-thru from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
BSM shared on its Facebook page how they would be handling ordering from the café; showing how a customer would pull up to the restaurant, order via text, can make a monetary donation via text, and wait for the order without going inside. The new method is to keep everyone safe, make it contactless, and adhere to the City of Edinburg’s ordinance to observe social distancing.
BSM also will be offering free meal delivery to UTRGV students.
Izaguirre said they are still working out how often they will be operating moving forward, given how quickly things are changing due to the pandemic.
