Charitable News

Charitable actions around Dallas include a gift of these standing desks

Standing desks, ready to be stood at.

Photo courtesy of Vari

Despite these difficult times, there remains an abundance of generosity from Dallas organizations helping out others. There's such an abundance that it requires a regular accounting. Sometimes reading about others' generosity inspires more generosity.

Here's this week's round of charitable acts:

Food pantry gifts
The Moozie Foundation, a non-profit arm of the Rosewood Corporation, and the Caroline Rose Hunt family have given four North Texas food pantries a holiday surprise gift of $15,000 each.

The four pantries include

Minnie's Food Pantry
Crossroads Community Services
Empowering the Masses
Cornerstone Baptist Church

Food pantries have been working nonstop to help support thousands during the pandemic. The money will allow the organizations to continue to offer hot meals to those in need through the holiday season.

Free standing desks
Coppell-based workspace innovation company Vari is donating $240,000 worth of products from its education line to 600 students at KIPP Texas Public Schools. They include standing school desks and active mats that give students the freedom to move around throughout the day. KIPP Truth Academy and KIPP Destiny are tuition-free charter schools in South Dallas with students from economically underserved communities. The Vari standing school desks and active mats let students stand up, sit down, and express movement without causing distractions.

Vari has donated nearly $5 million worth of products to nonprofit organizations since 2018. Their Vari Community Giving Program focuses on product donations to alleviate operational costs so nonprofits can put their resources back into the community.

Toy drive
Junk King Dallas, a local eco-friendly junk removal company, has launched a HAULidays Toy Drive in partnership with the local Boys & Girls Club of America during the 2020 holiday season. Renee Ferguson, owner of Junk King Dallas, has the donation bins placed at:

Keller William Dallas Midtown, 9850 N. Central Expwy.
Limber Studio, Casa Linda Plaza, 9540 Garland Rd. #402
JJ’s Cafe, 10233 E. Northwest Hwy #434

You can drop off new, unwrapped toys to these donation bins until Monday, December 21. Renee and her crew will take the donations to the local Boys & Girls Club, who will deliver the toys to underprivileged children in the community.

Child Protective Services grant
Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods presented $50,000 to Community Partners of Dallas to support the organization's work to assist and provide comfort to abused and neglected children in North Texas.

Community Partners was founded in 1989 to support the work of Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworkers in Dallas County. The organization provides programs in four areas: basic needs, such as coats and car seats; individualized services, including therapy and medical care; childhood experiences; and CPS caseworker support. More than 20,000 children are served annually.

Innovation prize
The Dallas Foundation, the first community foundation in Texas, selected local nonprofit Impact Ventures as the winner of the Pegasus Prize, a $50K social innovation grant for nonprofits and for-profit charitable organizations. The grant allows Impact Ventures to continue its work developing women and minority small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Founded in 2017, Impact Ventures hosts community events and workshops, social impact themed hackathons, and offers a 12-week business acceleration program providing access to education, training, mentorship, capital, and resources to participating fellows building businesses and social enterprises.

The Pegasus Prize also awarded two additional grants of $10K each to a joint venture between NPower Texas and Per Scholas, and to AES Literacy Institute.

charity

Legislative news

Texas governor intercedes with last-minute save on sales of THC

The THC limit in medical cannabis products is also increasing.

Photo courtesy of TOCC

The Texas cannabis industry is safe.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill Sunday to ban all THC consumables, allowing the booming market flush with THC-infused vapes, gummies and other products to continue to be sold across the state.

Abbott, a Republican, waited until the final moment to veto the bill in what would have been one of the most restrictive THC bans in the country and a significant blow to the state’s billion-dollar industry.

The law would have made it a misdemeanor to own, manufacture, or sell consumable THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, products and was the latest push by states to regulate THC after a 2018 federal law allowed states to regulate hemp, a similar plant to marijuana that can be synthetically processed to produce THC, the compound giving marijuana its psychoactive properties.

Loopholes in existing law have allowed many THC-infused goods to enter the market across the country, including states with strict marijuana laws.

Texas has some of the strictest marijuana laws in the country, prohibiting all recreational use and providing a limited medical marijuana program. The consumables market has allowed residents to legally access goods giving a similar high to marijuana.

Republican lawmakers have criticized the products as dangerous due to a lack of federal oversight in how the goods are manufactured. Texas’ ban is one of the more far-reaching among states that have taken similar steps. Several states, including California, have imposed age limits and restrictions on the potency of THC products.

Critics of the Texas bill say it allows people who cannot access marijuana through the state’s medical marijuana program to acquire goods that can provide a similar relief. Many retailers across the state also pointed to the thousands of jobs and millions in revenue the industry brings each year.

Last year, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have put age restrictions on THC consumables, claiming it would hurt small businesses.

cannabis politics