Stocked with a wide range of items – everything from baby products to birthday gifts – the Basic Necessities Cabinet benefits low-income families in Coconut Grove.
High school students Grace Diez, Bella Whitby and Emilie Calixte have been friends their whole lives. They’ve done everything together since they were 3 or 4 years old — the same Girl Scout troop, the same softball team, the same school.
Now the three girls – together with a fourth friend, Veronica Franzino – are bonding over something else they share in common – a community service project called the Basic Necessities Cabinet that provides the everyday products we all need and use for free to low-income families in Coconut Grove.
The students – all sophomores at the Carrollton School at the Sacred Heart and members of the same Girl Scout Troop – were inspired to start the Cabinet in 2023 after learning about the Coconut Grove Community Fridge.
Sitting on the sidewalk at 3600 Grand Avenue, the fridge is one of 10 in Miami-Dade County providing free, healthy food in neighborhoods where food insecurity is prevalent.
Just a few doors down from the fridge, the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative offered the students an empty cabinet inside its location to hold donated supplies.
The girls accepted and a partnership was born as the students set out to earn a Girl Scout Silver Award, a prestigious honor awarded to a team of scouts who makes a difference in their community.
Soon, the Basic Necessities Cabinet was in full swing, open to anyone who could benefit from the cabinet’s supply of basic hygiene, clothing and food products.
“I never realized how many people can’t afford these things and how much they rely on the cabinet,” Bella Whitby told the Spotlight.
The Cabinet’s contents vary based on demand and time of year. The items most in demand include soap, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, socks and feminine products.
To keep the Cabinet going, the girls do four main restocks a year: one in the Spring, a back-to-school supply drive in August, a healthy Halloween treat drive in October and a toy drive during the holidays.
March is when they host their largest project, and every year is something different – last year, the girls requested donations for baby supplies while this year they focused on collecting supplies for senior citizens.
“We kind of live in a bubble, but we get to see how other people live, and we get to help them,” said Emilie Calixte. “Just hearing the people at the Cabinet say what we’re doing is making a difference is enough to continue.”
The girls say it’s gratifying to see an empty Cabinet – a sign it’s being used – each time they visit to restock it, and they shared how rewarding it has been to share this experience with each other.
“I don’t think it’s something I have to do because my friends are doing it, I actually enjoy it,” Bella Whitby said.
Natalia Monsalve, care coordinator for the senior program at the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, has witnessed first-hand just how useful the Cabinet has been for the families in the community. “They don’t even have to ask, they open the Cabinet and take what they need,” she said.
The project has allowed the students to connect in other ways as well, even enlisting their fellow classmates to get involved.
“The Cabinet is the roots, and now it’s getting its branches as we get more ideas from the community,” said Jennifer Geer Diez, the students’ Girl Scout troop leader.
In the winter, the girls visited Carrollton’s middle school campus, where they presented their project and proposed the idea for a Christmas-themed toy drive.
They also organized a “Senior Citizen Day,” where the students spent time getting to know older members of the community over games of bingo and dominoes.
Grace Diez was able to join her younger sister for this event, to whom she plans to pass the project down. “I remember when we came in, their faces lit up,” she said. “They were so happy.”
Geer Diez isn’t just their troop leader – she’s also Grace’s mother, and she’s watched the girls mature over the years. She grew emotional recently as she talked about their accomplishments.
“These girls are the best girls there are — super kind, thoughtful and helpful,” she said. “I just want to help them be the best versions of themselves.”
Though initially a Girl Scout service project, the four girls plan to keep the Cabinet going and eventually pass it down once they get to college.
“For the sake of the community that it serves, we want to keep it sustainable,” said Veronica Franzino.
The Thelma Gibson Health Initiative is a nonprofit organization that serves low-income neighborhoods with a focus on critical needs, better health, economic stability and new skills. The organization is named after Thelma Vernell Anderson Gibson, a Coconut Grove native and advocate for education, health, community leadership and service, who helped establish TGHI in 2000.
Monsalve hopes that the project will help spread the word about the organization’s mission.
“It helps a lot to build that word of mouth, and anyone can help,” she said.
The Thelma Gibson Health Initiative is located at 3640 Grand Ave. in Coconut Grove. Visit the organization’s website for more information.
To follow along with the Cabinet, visit @community.needs.coconutgrove on Instagram.
