Over the last decade, Frank Martinez has spent his weeks leading up to Thanksgiving seeking donations from businesses for his annual holiday dinner at the Resource Center, a Dallas LGBTQ organization that dates to 1983.
He’s not used to being the donor.
But under a program created by his employer’s charitable arm, The Starbucks Foundation, Martinez helped guide a $2,000 grant to the center. The foundation seeks employee nominations on where to direct some of its corporate philanthropy.
The foundation doled out $2 million this week to nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Since the program began in 2019, it has awarded 47 employee-directed grants totaling nearly $90,000 to Dallas nonprofits.
Martinez, a barista, said he instantly thought about the Resource Center when he learned of his company’s grant program.
The Resource Center provides support and resources to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning communities and people affected by HIV in North Texas through health care, behavioral support services and social activities. More than 211,000 LGBTQ adults are estimated to be living in Dallas-Fort Worth, according to the latest Gallup data available.
“Their main focus is HIV education and resources,” Martinez said of the center. “When people find out they become positive, they don’t know what to do at that point. This is the first place that you go. This is the place that tells you exactly what to do from that point on.”
Martinez organizes the Thanksgiving dinner and has seen it grow from a meal for 40 or 50 people into an annual event serving as many as 500.
“We spend about six weeks getting sponsorships, asking local businesses … for funding,” Martinez said. “A lot of them ... step up. We’ve had beer companies step up and buy all of the turkeys. We’ve had Big Al’s Smokehouse, who has volunteered to cook and prepare all of the turkeys.”
The dinner is open to Resource Center clients and the public. “We get lines and lines of people that will come through throughout the day,” Martinez said.
For eight years, the event has been a family affair. Martinez’s husband, Michael Albee, assists by providing entertainment for the evening.
“After everyone has at least had their first serving, we have a show that my husband ... produces ... along with his theater alumni,” Martinez said. The show consists of live singers, theater singers and drag queens. “It’s dinner and a show. It’s a fun time.”
After the meal, leftovers are donated to a local charity. “Nothing goes to waste that day,” Martinez said.
The COVID-19 pandemic meant a large meal open to the public was out of the question last year. So Martinez found a creative way to continue to support his community.
“We needed to do something,” Martinez said. “So we did a food and resource drive. And by other resources, I mean hygiene products — soaps, towels, blankets, socks, a coat.”
Martinez and a group of volunteers operated a drop-off site for donations.
“People drove by and dropped some things off. I had my few volunteers, including two partners from Starbucks, … wipe and clean everything down to try and keep everything as hygienic as possible, of course, because we were in the middle of COVID at the time,” he said. “And it was a great success. We were able to do it again at Christmas.”
The LGBTQ community has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, said Jennifer Collins, the Resource Center’s senior marketing and communications manager. She cites health care, discriminatory policies and separation from peers and community as specific problems for the LGBTQ community.
“We already know that LGBTQ youth are more prone to suicide, suicidal thoughts and actions,” she said. “And so unfortunately, they’ve been really affected during this time. Same goes for our transgender and gender diverse community.”
To support clients during the pandemic, the Resource Center has held many virtual events made possible by over 1,200 volunteers.
Martinez’s affiliation with the Resource Center goes beyond volunteering. He and his husband got married at Resource Center’s new building in 2017. The couple asked for donations to the center in lieu of gifts, and guests brought cash and checks.
“It was another way to give back,” Martinez said.
The Resource Center seeks volunteers and donations year round. Information can be found at myresourcecenter.org/give.
