About Us
Bare Necessities Foundation, Inc. was created during the pandemic, when 30 year veteran teacher, Karen Shilling, saw a need among many of her students for food and basic supplies. Karen scoured her personal and professional networks, was able to secure food boxes and began to distribute these items to her students on a regular basis throughout the pandemic.
Bare Necessities Foundation, Inc.
Founder, Karen Shilling
During the pandemic, Karen was regularly distributing dozens of boxes of food and produce per week to needy families in Montgomery County. Word spread that Karen could help families meet their needs and as such, Karen began asking her network and local businesses for donations of food, gift cards, furniture, household goods, clothes, diapers, books and toys. She formed the Bare Necessities Foundation so as to provide Montgomery County families with the "bare necessities" such as food, furniture and clothing in order to allow those families to focus their efforts and income on building better futures for themselves.
Image courtesy of ABC7
Today, Bare Necessities provides furniture and household goods for new families each week, in addition to the continued support of the hundreds of previous clients.
Bare Necessities Foundation has served over 250 families in just 18 months.
Karen is a part of almost every donation pick up and home set up and is assisted by a small but loyal group of volunteers and the clients themselves. Karen says that "Bare Necessities sees a need, gets things done to help and does so quickly."
