Candid Conversation with Adrienne Barker, MAS

Tell us what's going on, Maria.

Right now, we are all here packing, getting ready for tomorrow's distribution. For the east side of West Volusia alone, we have over 2,000, and now it's up to 70 meals, 2,170 meals going out tomorrow that we're packing for tonight. So it's really busy, but we've been so blessed with so many donations coming through the door. And I'm gonna take you for a walk out there so you can check it out.

Thank you.

Yes, um, you ready?

I'm ready, Maria.

Okay, let me figure this out. Need my mask because we have people.

That's a cute mask too. It's cute with your earrings. Oh my God, I love you.

Here we go. All right, wow, we're here with the Jesus Church, and what we have is everyone— say hi everyone, you're live! As you can see, we're all safely social distancing as we pack, and we are so happy that we could bless all these families with all these meals tomorrow. I mean, You could see here, like this family of 3, they have everything from shampoo to bread, fruit, produce. They have meats going in the packages. This is everything that we're handing out to help our families stay home. Believe it or not, look at all this stuff. This is just one section of stuff we have packed. And as we come over here, there's more. We're running out of room for everything, but these are all the single packages for all our seniors. Wow. All this groceries that you see here are a week's supply of food, so they have 7 days worth of breakfast, 7 days worth of dinner, and then they have all these little extra bonuses, you know, English muffins, she's still packing these bags. Um, they have bananas, they have cereal, anything you can think of. All this came from the farmers market and from Perrine's Produce. They donated all this stuff for us today. Um, we have— these are all our shelves. You see all this food we have here. It's beautiful. It's crazy because Saturday our shelves were empty. We had to stop packing. And look at this. We just packed all that food and this is what we have left. We still have food left. We went from empty shelves to having shelf fulls. And over here we have more. There's even more groceries packed over here. And we're thinking of everything. We're making sure they have toilet paper, making sure they have produce, everything. We even have seniors with kitty cats, so we make sure we give them kitty food.

Wow.

And, um, I just— I'm gonna, I'm gonna go in the other room real quick.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, Maria, Maria, can the volunteers just shout out their name? Can you just have each of them just go right around the room with their names?

Would you guys mind just shouting out your name for us? Um, I'll start over. I'll start over here and work my way around. Hi, I'm Mark. This is Mark. Jennifer.

Jennifer.

Ashley. Brittany. Jaden. Drayden. I'm Paula. I'm the new one. Hi, Paula. I'm Shelly. Shelly. Bryson. Ashley. Ashley again. We have Ashley squared. Sharon. Yeah, this is our help tonight, and we needed it. We needed it for all these meals that we're sending out. Uh, we have— these are— you see the boxes is because these are some of our bigger families. 5 families of 5, family of 6.

Wow.

And I just want to help everyone understand something. Let me go back in the other room. Okay. As you see all these boxes and all these bags, they're not— this doesn't even count how many people are out of work. I wish we could help everyone because there's so many people like crying for help and I can't. I just wish I could open up to help everyone. But you see all these groceries? These are all families that have suppressed immune systems. Some of them have been tested positive and they can't leave. And we have a lot of seniors. And I have seniors, 95 years old, call me and they're like, you know, I live off of $15 after my Social Security check is gone. And they start crying because they actually have food to go in the fridge and in the cabinet. So So this is, this is our reality every day, and this is why we, we're doing what we're doing.

Maria, I don't know, you're so beautiful. I love you so much. Sorry, I just love you. You're just, you're just such a beautiful soul. You know what's very obvious is that the food looks like really high quality food too. It doesn't look like, you know, you just throw together rotten bananas. Everything looks so quality that you can tell, all brand names. It's really so That is such a beautiful thing. That is a really beautiful vision to see your warehouse. And I'm just gonna do the shout out because Maria is always so focused on making sure she's taking care of people and it does cost money. I feel like it's a telethon, but it is a telethon. It does cost money. A warehouse costs money, phones cost money, you know, having all the workers. What Maria is doing is all volunteering her time, but there's still bills that have to be paid. And so Maria has— and then when Maria is done doing all of this work—

You can't make me cry on camera.

You gotta stop. I'm not. But when she's done with all of this, then she goes back and she works on her— she has to get— everything is so organized. And Jason Walker, you're right, Maria. He's an amazing man. But it was— you know what? You also knew enough to speak to him and to develop that relationship with him. And so it takes two. It takes two to tangle. And so you got to remember that you're, you're the big part of that too. But what you asked him to do was so brilliant. So now Maria's got some little time saved, but like, let's hope she sleeps during that time. But the thing is that Maria, she makes sure when the volunteers go out, they've got all the information. They're not driving around aimlessly wondering. They've got it all organized. Maria is doing this on a shoestring budget. No, actually, there's no shoestring, is there? Like zero budget. It's really crazy. You're touched by the— an angel. This is a woman— you need to look at this face. This is a woman that has God on her shoulders. She's touched. She is one of the most beautiful people I've ever met in my life. Soul is beautiful. I'm so glad I asked you to be my friend for an hour and a half. Thank you for accepting that proposal. And, uh, so Maria, thank you for the update. How do you feel? How are you?

Um, I feel great. I, I'm just overwhelmed. I mean, I, I'm really happy that we can help so many people, but at the same time, like, when I talk to our friends and I hear— I just hear how so many people are suffering, like, it just bothers me. So, you know, at the same time, like, I feel like I could celebrate the success of Healthy Souls and all the people we could help, but there's still so many that we can't help. And you know, it just bothers me.

No, I could understand that. I noticed you get so many requests from, um, Maria shared her Facebook page with me so I can, as an editor or whatever, so I could see. And the requests, I was looking at them. I mean, they're coming in and you're responding to everyone. You're getting the information because of Jason. You can ask them for the email and send them the form. But I know what you mean because I read them too. And I'm like, You know, the, the, the— it's real. It's real. The need is real. And right now, so many people aren't even getting their stimulus or their unemployment. So it's, it's only going to get worse. But I love that you're taking care of our most vulnerable. I think that's so important. And I think that you can do it if people continue to give. And you have different ways of giving. So besides, follow Healthy Souls International, and I'll re-put on the, um, your Facebook page. But you give out when you're— when you are picking up the donations, correct? You have two locations?

Um, we, we actually are collecting here every Sunday from 5 to 7, every Tuesday from 5 to 7. The same days that we're collecting, everything that comes through— let me show you that big bay door— it comes through there and it sits on a table and it doesn't move from there until it's sanitized. Wow, every single thing you see in here has been sanitized, wiped down. We are making sure we take every precaution to keep our seniors and the people at home who have suppressed immune systems safe. We don't want to, you know, we don't want to spread anything, and I think they're the ones most vulnerable.

I, you know what, I can't believe that's the same warehouse that It's crazy, the same warehouse that you showed me a couple months ago. It's just, it's nuts. It's nuts. And I'm sure they all want to thank you. I see the thank you letters coming in from them, and I know they're calling you, and I'm sure they wish they could give you a big hug to thank you for feeding them. And then just say one more thing. A lot of you're finding out the names more from family members that are also calling you, right, and asking you to help.

Oh, let me go in the other room.

Oh, no worries.

I'm— what? I didn't hear what you just said.

You're, you're finding out a lot of who needs help from family members that are farther away that are getting in touch with you, asking you.

Yeah, we've had, um, we've had, you know, I had one, one son call me. He's from New York. Actually, we were already feeding his mom, and then he just called me crying basically because he was so happy that someone was taking care of her and checking on her every week. And, and he, he's the one that sent the 3 box— he actually sent 4 boxes like of cereals and Cup O' Noodles and stuff to help us out because he couldn't be here to help her himself. Oh yeah. Yeah.

And then I want to make another point, Maria.

So happy that to know that we're, you know, there's someone looking out for her. And we've had other people— I had someone from Indiana call me Same thing, my mom's there, can you please check on her? Can you please call her? So we called and we added her mom on the list. And it's not just here, I mean, we're getting calls from everywhere.

So Marie, I also wanna say another thing before I let you go. You also collaborate, so when you have extra food, you call, and so there's a big collaboration. So we know the children are being taken care of by, I think the school system, Heroes, Michael's group, right? So we have different, different groups. And then Heroes of Help. Yeah, that's so much.

So we had so much bread come in last week that we were able to help them. We have even more that whatever we have left over tonight, we're going to donate probably to a shelter or to, um, the Beacon Center. You know, whoever tells me they want it, they can have it. We're gonna spread it out because, um, Mary's actually bringing us some more bread next week so we can keep helping the other organizations as well. It's awesome. It's awesome that we're able to do that.

So I think so too, and I think that's a really important point that you are now collaborating with different groups. And actually, if you were to call the United Way, they will direct you. So a lot of these groups are directing Maria. She's got a really beautiful, um, uh, Eyewitness News, um, channel reporter who is on the scenes helping her. Maria's got a nice collaboration of of groups, of people, of volunteers, of all support everywhere. So continue to support Healthy Souls International, other groups that will continue to support. And is there any shoutouts you wanna say? 'Cause I know so many people are out there, but is there anything?

I just, for Volusia County, for all our supporters out there, for Channel 6 News, for Lauren, she actually didn't come in with Channel 6 News. She just came in as a volunteer. Wow, awesome. She's been really awesome. Um, for the sheriff's office, you know, coming alongside us to help us out. Um, the Port Orange City Council members and Mayor Burnett wanting to help us host another drive. And now we have, um, another community off LPGA doing a drive for us. It's just been— it's been amazing how many people, now that they know what we're doing, want to help. It's It's beautiful. We— I keep saying it, even back in the Bahamas, and I kept saying, you know, we have such an awesome community because everybody always wants to help, and it hasn't changed. It has not changed.

And then the churches— can you mention the churches too? You have two, because that's really helping you. So the people there today, the people that we just got the shout out of their names, who are they representing?

They're from the Jesus Church in Port Orange And we also have Christ the King Church from Port Orange helping us. Yeah.

And then you really—

It's been amazing. And we also have the Brower family. We have, you know, Zenaida. We have Maria Tren helping us. Everyone's been amazing. And then all the people behind the scenes, Jason Walker, Sam Adams helping me with the website, everything that you do on your end, you know, just doing everything to help me out and, and looking over my emails and making sure I don't— you know, I'm not the most— I'm not the best person at sending out stuff and writing stuff.

Yes, you are.

It's like my worst part. I love the contact with people, not the administrative. So you've been amazing to me and amazing coming alongside me to help me with that, Adrianne. And you're awesome. You're an angel. Stop it.

But you actually are very good at everything you do. But you know what? You still need more help and more volunteers. Because you want to give them a break too. So any churches, anyone watching this, and I know you have so many views, Maria, just, just, just do whatever you can because I haven't been able to get out there to be physical out there. So I do what I can behind the scenes. That's all we're asking. Do what you can, give what you can, and, uh, thank you.

Oh, another— I can't forget the radio stations who've been, oh, you know, very supportive. Um, Michelle Landry from WAPRN. I'm very terrible at this. And, um, Terry Savastano. I just, you know, I love you guys. I love all of you for all your help. Thank you.

You're amazing. You really are. I love you. I just—

I—

you know what, there's like— you can have friends your whole life you love, and I've only known you for almost less than a year, but my heart is so swollen with you. I really love you, and, uh, I look forward to, uh, to giving a big hug So thank you, Maria, and thank you for everything.

Thank you. Good night.

Good night. Get some rest, please.

Bye-bye. Bye.