‘Neighbors Helping Neighbors’: A Conversation About Saline Area Social Service

Austin, Texas-Aug 24, 2026

Every week, roughly 300 people walk through the doors of Saline Area Social Service (SASS) looking for groceries, transportation, tutoring, or simply a helping hand. For more than 60 years, the nonprofit has connected neighbors with neighbors-building a community where support often comes full circle.

We spoke with executive director Jamail Aikens about the growing needs he sees in the community, why relationships matter as much as resources, and how partnerships-including Oracle's support-help expand SASS's impact.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What are some of the biggest needs you see in the community?

Aikens: Obviously, food. With food prices, inflation and even gas over the last few years, it can become very expensive. Oftentimes, you can take your family to a grocery store and easily spend $200 in a week. So, imagine if you can offset those costs by coming to a local food pantry that's well stocked and well supported by the community. That allows you to take your dollars further and provide that extra support for the kids, or even have gas in your car to get to work on a regular basis.

Q: What does "neighbors helping neighbors" mean to you personally?

Aikens: On a personal basis, it means I live in this community and I'm an active part of this community. When I see people who come in to shop or receive services, I don't necessarily see them as clients. I see them as people. When I go out for a meal at a local restaurant, I often run into someone we helped at SASS serving my meal or cleaning the tables. When I go into Walmart, sometimes I'll see people we serve there too.

Q: Is there a story you can share that captures that theme of SASS's work?

Aikens: During each holiday, we get gift cards donated and pass those on to families so they can get what they need for the kids or for the household. We gave this young man some gift cards to go to Walmart for his birthday. You might think a high school kid would buy video games or clothes, but he bought a power washer because he knew he could earn money with it.

He later started his own landscaping and power washing business. We helped him with some marketing, cleaned up his logo, made him yard signs, and he's been able to get more business around the neighborhood.

That's really what neighbors helping neighbors looks like. You help someone, and then you start to see the paths cross, and things come full circle.

Q: You've also launched other programs that reflect that same idea. What are a few of those?

Aikens: One of the other things we do is the 'Honey Do' list. We met with residents in a local senior citizens building and asked how we could be a better service to them. They said they could use volunteers to come in once in a while and help with odds and ends around their apartment.

So, three or four times a year, we recruit volunteers and go over to one of the local senior citizens buildings. And they do all kinds of honey-do things. It could be as simple as programming a remote control, flipping a mattress, or moving some furniture.

Those are basic, simple tasks, but seniors living by themselves may not have anyone to assist them with those things.

We also started giving kids books for their birthdays. One parent told us her son is usually reserved, but when he saw the books, his eyes lit up. She said she had read them to him more than five times already. All the books were sponsored by neighbors and given to neighbors.

Q: You've expanded into tutoring and summer learning as well. Why is that so important?

Aikens: We regularly have food drives, and we've been able to keep our pantry pretty well stocked because of the ongoing response from the community. Then we started asking ourselves what else we could do to have a bigger impact and a deeper impact. One of the most important things in changing the trajectory of someone's life is education. The sooner you can get to kids and help them with reading and math, the better chance they have for future outcomes and a better life.

So, we started a tutoring program last year. We worked with about five kids and had about 12 tutors coming in on different days. Then we expanded it into the summer and started a summer learning camp with about 20 kids enrolled, with local teachers and volunteers helping support the program.

Q: What has Oracle's support made possible?

Aikens: There have been two primary programs which Oracle has supported. Number one is helping to support our senior transportation program, including the van and the costs associated with providing transportation. Because of that, we're able to pick up seniors and other folks in the community who need access to food and bring them to Saline Area Social Service to go shopping.

The second thing we've been able to do is expand that transportation program to bring seniors to the local farmers market on Saturdays. We had five seniors go last week, and we also have vouchers so they can shop at the farmers market and get additional fresh produce and food. If Saline Area Social Service didn't have the support from organizations like Oracle, we wouldn't be here.

Q: What do you want people outside the community to understand about the work that's happening here?

Aikens: Even though Saline is known for lots of new housing and growth, there are people here who struggle. Sometimes people hit a hiccup. They may have trouble making their mortgage note or their utility bills. We want to be here to help those folks, and we also want to keep making a bigger impact with kids so we can potentially change their futures.

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