Our Mission. Allen Community Outreach is committed to the improvement of the quality of life through the provision of basic necessities, specialized programs and independent living skills.

Our Vision. The vision of Allen Community Outreach is to be the premier agency in matching services to the needs of the greater Allen community.

Information and Referral

Information & Referral is a vital service to link people who need services to those who provide them. When in doubt as to where to turn for health and human service assistance, Allen Community Outreach’s Information & Referral serves as a facilitator, broker and advocate. As simple as a phone call, our helpful staff is available to help you find answers weekdays from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Evenings and weekends please call 2-1-1 from a land line.

Client Assistance with Rent, Utilities, Food and Clothing

Assisting families in times of emergency, rent and utilities crisis, is a commitment ACO has made to the communities we serve. If you would like to come in and counsel with a caseworker, we will review your individual situation and take the time needed to best help you through your crisis. If you have proof of residency in the zip codes of Allen, Fairview or Lucas, call and make an appointment. Vital information about you and your family is necessary to create a profile of your needs. Please bring all of the following information to your appointment:

Job Placement and Counseling

Many area employers depend on ACO to help them find valuable employees. Allen Community Outreach keeps an updated job bank featuring current listings of employment opportunities. A collaborative effort with North Texas Work Force in Plano has been developed to give individual assistance in finding employment.  Please contact the ACO office for more information.

Food and Clothing

The Allen Food Pantry is available to families in need of groceries. ACO provides vouchers for families to pick up a month’s supply of food items. In addition, vouchers are given to help families needing clothing. Vouchers may be spent as cash at the ACO Resale Shop located at 801 Main Street, for warm winter coats, or school clothes and shoes for children, clothes for an interview, or seasonal clothes. Vouchers must be obtained at the ACO office located at 301 W. Boyd.

Care & Share Program

Thanks to a community program supported by the Allen and Lovejoy ISD’s, the Care and Share Program stocks items such as diapers, paper products, personal hygiene items and other essentials. Toiletries and food items are also available when needed.

Holiday Programs

Thanksgiving food boxes are filled with all of the food items needed for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Hundreds of cardboard boxes are collected and decorated by children in the community.  Scout groups, school groups and individuals all join in the fun of decorating the boxes with a Thanksgiving theme. As the decorated boxes are dropped off at the ACO’s collection site, so are canned and dry good items collected from businesses, churches and community groups. When the boxes are filled, hundred of families come to collect their complimentary turkey and food for their own family dinner.

Just as the food goes out to needy families, the gifts are received at ACO for Christmas. Children, teens and seniors are adopted by area families, individuals and businesses at Christmastime to play “Santa” and buy items from their wish lists. The new and unwrapped gifts are returned to the ACO where they are sorted and distributed the week before Christmas.

Meals on Wheels & More

ACO’s Meals on Wheels & More program serves the homebound residents of Allen, Fairview and Lucas. Meals on Wheels is designed to serve seniors over the age of 60 who are homebound or cannot prepare their own meals.  A warm, nutritious lunch is delivered by a volunteer each weekday. Specially packaged heat-and-eat meals are delivered prior to the holidays.

ACO’s “More” part of the program offers meal delivery to individuals younger than 60, who, for whatever reason, are homebound and need this assistance. Sometimes it is a short-term basis such as recovering from an illness or it may be a long-term service for a disability.

Volunteers make this program possible. Many drive only once or twice a month, but those few hours are the highlight of many of our Meals on Wheels client’s day. If you would like to join the team of volunteers who deliver meals, please contact the ACO Volunteer Director at 972-727-9131.

If you are interested in the Meals on Wheels & More program for yourself or someone you know, please call today. There is no cost involved. If you are 60 or older, contact the Collin County Committee on Aging for information on the program at 972-562-6996. after they take your general information, they will put us in contact with you. If you under the age of 60 and in need of meals delivery or have any questions about the program in general, contact ACO at 972-727-9131.

New Collaborative Efforts

Pilot Dental Program is a collaborative effort with the Allen ISD and the Lovejoy ISD school nurses, ACO and a group of dentists from the community who volunteer dental services to all students in these two school districts.  The nurses refer the student to ACO.  ACO screens each family and then refers the student to an individual dentist who assumes the dental treatment for the student throughout the school year.  This program began February 2007 and has seven dentists and two orthodontists participating.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services of McKinney and ACO have partnered for financial classes for families who have received assistance for rent, mortgage, and utilities.  They provide financial education for families with proper tools to budget, save, and prioritize financial needs. These classes are offered on a continuing basis on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. 

North Texas Food Bank offers assistance to all families at ACO who have yet to apply for WIC, Food Stamps, CHIPS, or Medicaid.  This is not a qualifying program but an opportunity for someone to assist in completing the necessary forms for applying to these programs.  Assistance is provided monthly at ACO office.   

Fix Up/Clean Up Projects

ACO volunteers join together for a small clean up or fix-up property projects in the community. Minor repairs and maintenance on a neighbor’s home or yard work is easily done when volunteers work with each other to paint, trim trees and bushes, mow lawns, etc. Homebound seniors are a favorite when it comes to helping others! If you need help or would like to help others, please contact ACO at 972-727-9131.