In 1984, Carol Kane started small like the mustard seed
... operating out of her garage, financed by her own money, and
with the help of her husband and children. She believed that
through her efforts, small as they were, she could
 remove
some of the boulders from the mountain of obstacles facing the
homeless, the elderly, and single-parent families in their
transition from the "street" to once more becoming productive
and whole members of the community.
Two years later, she moved her overflowing inventory to a small
leased industrial space in Longwood. This soon expanded into two
additional adjacent warehouse spaces. In June 1988, The Mustard
Seed of Longwood, Inc. was created as a non-profit corporation.
 The
number of families receiving assistance grew, and so Carol moved
the charity to a 1500 sq. ft. warehouse in Apopka and the name
was changed to The Mustard Seed of Central Florida, Inc. Once
again, she expanded into a second and then a third adjacent
space for a total of 4500 sq. ft.
As Carol became more successful in enlisting the help of local
businesses to provide used furniture, household goods and
clothing for her families, even more space was required, and the
Mustard Seed relocated to a 10,000 sq. ft. facility in Orlando.
12 Mustard Seed Lane Finally, in July 1999, we moved into our
wonderful new warehouse in Eatonville. Because of the generosity
of Central Florida businesses and individuals, this building is
the first one that is actually owned by the Mustard Seed!!
 It
didn't stop there ... since donations are "feast or famine",
punctuated by large scale remodeling by hotels, the Mustard Seed
needs the capacity to store many truckloads of their donated
furniture at a moment's notice. In 2002, a rack system was added
to increase usable storage by going vertical. In 2003, a
mezzanine was completed to further expand storage capacity.
Along the way, Carol's hard work, enthusiasm, and most of all,
genuine concern and love for "all of God's children" always
shone true. Her caring, personal financial sacrifices and the
family atmosphere of the Mustard Seed inspire the devotion of
the staff and the volunteers who help in the various warehouse
areas. Some of these hard-core Mustard Seeders have been coming
in once a week or so to help her for years!
From a single woman's dream of wishing to help one family per
month, the Mustard Seed has grown into an organization that
helps over a thousand families a year with furniture and seven
hundred families with clothing. Over the course of a year, an
estimated $3 million of furniture, clothing and other household
goods are distributed free of charge. We now have a new
warehouse, a small salaried staff, numerous volunteers, and two
trucks for donation pickups. |
