50 YEAR CELEBRATION - COUNTY RESOLUTION - BLACK HISTORY MAKERS COMMENTS

Verna Melton, on September 3rd, accepted Commissioner Elber Garcia's Resolution. " I am pleased, honored, and humbly accept this resolution, which all Dallas County Commissioners have approved."  She reminded them not only her son, as reported by the Dallas Morning News reporter Mark Seibel;  over 5,000 Black Boys had been misplaced in a program to receive federal dollars.

Also, she recalled the time in 1980 when Congressman Jim Maddox contacted us to arrange a meeting with Mr. Sam Cornelius, the chairman of the USDA. He selected us to distribute surplus cheese and butter. Mr. Lipscomb reached out to our friend Pete Schiekels, the CEO of Shepps Dairy at that time, for assistance with storage.  Mr. Schiekels helped us to utilize the Affords Refrigeration warehouse on Industrial at Cadiz. We distributed cheese and butter at the Judy Lott Center, the Parking Lot at Fair Park, and Fort Worth -Wesley Chapel AME Church, paving the way for establishing the first North Texas Food Bank. With our documentation, we assisted our friends MT "Buddy" Minyard, Jack Evans, and many other grocery owners in implementing the first North Texas Food Bank. 

My husband and I were contacted to help a family staying in a Shamrock service station restroom on the corner of Hatchett and Scyene in South Dallas. We brought them to our center, where they remained at the Judy Lott Center for ten days until the Board Members pitched in to pay for an apartment and assisted them with furniture. With the help of our board members Carolyn Taylor (wife of Mayor Starke Taylor) and Annette Strauss (Mayor Pro Tem), we could document that only the YMCA and the Salvation Army assisted homeless men, not women or children. With our documentation, we assisted Mayor Taylor with raising funds for the Austin Street Shelter and Annette Strauss with the second shelter to help mothers with children.