Who are we?

The C&CR Foundation is a Non-Profit Corporation based in Richardson, TX. Our mission is to promote hope, wonder, inspiration, and empowerment on both the personal and community level. We do this through direct action, sponsorships, and promotion of other organizations that are striving for compatible goals.

Our directors are Cally Rogers, Chris Rogers, and Tonie Daly.

What have we done?

Cally and Chris Rogers got their start on this mission by participating in homeless outreach. This included a wide host of activities including preparing and delivering hot meals and fresh water, purchasing and delivering winter supplies (coats, hats, sleeping bags, etc.), and helping homeless persons with locating vital services.

In May of 2021, Cally and Chris opened up the Wake Drive Food Pantry. This is a garage based food pantry hosted out of their residence in Richardson, TX. This pantry is open every 2nd and 4th Sunday from noon till 6PM for anyone who needs it. However, the pantry is not just limited to food. We also offer clothing, toys, school supplies, household equipment, and work tools. Around 90% of the donations in our pantry are community sourced. Cally and Chris fund the balance out of their own pockets (~$800/month). We currently have sveral regular volunteers that assist each time we are open.

In January 2023, we remodelled the Wake Drive Food Pantry and made it quite a bit larger! The resulting pantry feels a bit more like a neighborhood market. We also received our 501c3 status and began operating as an officially recognized non-profit. We also spent a great deal of time this season building out our back yard gardens and understanding better what grows well in this area and what is not worth our time and effort.

What is in our future?

Near Term

For fall of 2023, we want to revitalize the back garden (once the heat dies back a bit) and try for a bumper crop of peppers and tomatillos. We also want to raise awareness of our organization and the food pantry project in order to get more volunteers and perhaps recruit some directors. Then we can lean into further expansions of the Wake Drive Food Pantry.

We also will be having another homeless outreach project in the late fall as we head into the winter season. This project will involve making backpacks or satchels filled with vital supplies, medical kits, survival sleeping backs, etc. These kits will be distributed across the DFW area.

Mid Term

As we expand the food pantry, we also want to expand the services offered by our organization. In 2024, we are expecting to begin classes in various topics such as “basic adulting”, urban gardening, beginner’s cooking, basic automotive maintenance, etc. The intention is to bring in more regular volunteers to assist with this instruction, preferably members of the local community. We will also occasionally bring in paid guest speakers as needed.

We also own and operate our own toy company (Earthbound Martian) that makes and sells toys. As such, we want host a collaboration between The C&CR Foundation and Earthbound Martian to do toy drives and free community festivals that will be focused on community building and bring hope and light to the winter season of 2023 & 2024.

Long Term

As The C&CR Foundation and our involvement in the community grows, we ultimately want to design and build a large community center that will be owned and operated by the foundation for the purpose of fulfilling our mission on a grand scale. While still in the aspirational stages, our current plans for this facility are:

• Urban Farming
  • Illustrate various approaches including Vertical Farming, Container Farming, Hydroponics, rooftop farming, etc.
  • Purpose is to drive the movement of produce production into the communities that need it so as to help reduce food islands and food costs
  • On-site labs with tours, demos, and community volunteers
  • All food produced will go to the food pantry or community kitchen
• Community Kitchen
  • A “pay what you can” kitchen that provides a limited number of hot meals to anyone who needs one.
  • This will be a state of the art, professional kitchen that will be headed by a professional chef and staffed with community volunteers.
  • Hope is that we can collaborate with local cooking schools to give their students a real world sort of experience in an environment that helps the community
• Food Pantry
  • We will stay true to our roots and continue the food pantry. The pantry will move out of our garage and into this facility
  • The format of the pantry will be upgraded to be more like a small general store with set store hours and at least one volunteer on hand at any given time.
• Education
  • We will make use of the facility to expand our education offerings. For example, if we end up with a koi pond on site, it will be used to do biology instruction. A state of the art maker facility will be on hand to teach skills such as wood crafting, welding, 3D design, sewing, etc.
  • We may offer to rent parts of the facility out to local schools and business as a way of raising operating funds
• Farmers Market, Concerts, & Festivals
  • We want this facility to be the place the community goes to to be involved and in touch. To this end, we will host bi-weekly Farmers Markets (European Style open air markets), monthly concerts and performances (featuring local talent if possible), and seasonal festivals that celebrate life and community.