In June, 2004, Caritas began a partnership with the Waco Walmart Return Center to distribute some of the returned merchandise to nonprofit social service agencies and organizations. Walmart's suppliers and vendors have instructed the Return Center to give some of these items to charities for distribution to people in need. These items include primarily, paper products, personal hygiene items, and household goods.
In 2006, through Caritas’ Gifts-in Kind Program (GIK), 3,436,044 lbs. of merchandise were distributed to over 200 charitable, not-for-profit organizations, including 21 of America’s Second Harvest Food Banks, in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, and a Mexican National Food Bank in Acuna, Mexico. Considering the number of persons served by all of these organizations and food banks, close to a million people in need were served through the GIK Program in 2006!
