TYLER, Texas — Sha'ron Ortiz is as selfless of a person as you'll ever meet.
"I just wanted to give back what God had given me back," Oritz said. "Another chance to help other people that weren't so fortunate to help themselves at that time."
She spends all of her free time buying food and supplies to feed the homeless, something she's been doing for more than 20 years.
"It's just important to me that they have something for later on," Ortiz said. "Having a hot meal, a home-cooked meal was really important to me, then, you know, the packaged meal for the ones that couldn't prepare meals, and I wanted to cook for them like if there were my own kids or family members."
Now, Sha'Ron has started her own organization called "Helping Hands Bridging the Gap," with the help of her friend Cindy Gordon, who came along at the perfect time.
"I met her not even a year ago," Gordon said. "And she is taking her own hard-earned money to spend it and then taking her time to cook and it doesn't matter if it's raining, or cold or hot. She's under the bridge feeding people. Feeding people in the parks just wherever the need is and I just think that she needed to be recognized for what she's doing."
Cindy was working at a local store when Sha'Ron came in to buy some items she needed to make dinner for some homeless men and women that night. Sha'Ron told her what she was working and immediately Cindy jumped in to help out.
"God put on my heart to do something for you and she paid for it for me from Family Dollar, and we've been friends ever since," Ortiz said.
In celebration of her hard work, Johnathan Stark and the Daniel Stark Law Firm presented Sha'ron with a $500 check.
"This is truly a blessing," Ortiz said. "Thank you, well, this can feed a lot of people, a lot of food."
Congratulations, Sha'Ron! Thank you for all of your hard work serving the community.