Chef's Table Charities is a non-profit located in Galveston County, Texas centered around aid for students and teachers in times of peace and crisis. #joinusatthetable
After Hurricane Harvey, Chef Mary Bass spearheaded a campaign to raise money for the teachers of Dickinson ISD who were displaced after the Hurricane; the goal was to put $200 in the hand of each teacher and staff. Originally, she started with just Calder Road Elementary, where all her children attended, raising that money within a couple of hours. Over the past year, with the help of the community she has raised over $20,000 for teachers in 7 schools.
In the wake of the tragedies at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018, Chef Mary formed Chef’s Table Charities. With her village of volunteers, they put together a community event the night of the tragedy, feeding the community and bringing in over $4,000 for the Compassion Fund. The next evening, they organized a community pot luck, attended by over 200 people. While at the pot luck, Chef Mary heard a mom mention that she was not going to attend any more events with media presence. Armed with that information, Chef Bass and the volunteers organized the largest community event at Gulf Grey Hound Park the Tuesday following the shooting. Upwards of 6,000 community members and 100’s of volunteers put on a pot luck event for the community and a separate dinner with care bags for the high school students. This event was attended by 1,200 students as well as the Houston Texan’s Cheerleaders, the Dynamo and Dash soccer teams.
Chef Mary continued random acts of kindness reaching out the to students who were present in the art room, the other fine arts rooms or were shot and began to support them and show the students they were loved.
We have also worked on multiple community projects helping new foster families get outfitted with everything they need to accept new children, supplying back to school clothes and supplies to multiple community families, and helping teachers get their rooms ready for the 2018/2019 school year. Chef’s Table Charities continues to work with the Santa Fe community on a variety of projects while beginning to reach out into the rest of the county to offer support and aid as needed.
During the government shut down in 2019, Chef's Table Charities went to action setting up home grocery deliveries. We delivered groceries, staples such as diapers and wipes and gas cards to government families affected by the shutdown. We were able to work with the Coast Guard and feed over 1000 people for almost 2 months thanks to the support from our community.
When Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana, we went to work with local churches sending aid and food to the Cajun Commissary who were feeding and housing people out of makeshift tents with camping gear.
While we look forward to this current time of peace, as we enjoying doing random acts of kindness such as sending 60 Galveston County teachers kolaches for Valentine's Day, we are ready to serve our community!