Bell'Aroma Cafe on the city's Southside is collecting essential supplies for victims of the devastating Hill Country floods, with the owner's personal connection to the area driving her efforts.
Monica Mangiarulo, who owns Bell'Aroma Cafe, was motivated to help after learning about the flooding in Kerrville, where her son will soon attend college at Schreiner University.
"It hit home and it hit hard. My son is about to head out to college, to Kerrville. It's going to be home for him. And when I heard that, and especially all those young lives that were lost, it's the very least thing that I can do," Mangiarulo said.
Her son, Giancarlo Mangiarulo, an incoming freshman on the soccer team, first saw the tragedy unfold through videos shared by his coach.
"I saw on the news, on my feed, when I went on my phone. I'm in touch with my coach in Kerrville. He sent us a video in the group chat. Showing images of how it was," Giancarlo said.
Seeing the devastation in what will soon be his community inspired Giancarlo to help spread the word about donation efforts.
"These are our neighbors, you know, fellow Texans, you know, I believe that nowadays, you know, we just need to help each other out and make the world a better place and leave a mark," Giancarlo said.
The cafe is accepting donations including diapers, baby supplies, hygiene items, and non-perishable food, water bottles and more. Monica said the community response has been overwhelming, filling an entire section of her store in just a few days. She had to borrow additional space to store all the donations.
Bell'Aroma will be taking donations until Saturday, June 12 at 12 p.m.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
Catch all the KRIS 6 News stories and more on our YouTube page. Subscribe today!
