Many people may not know the countless number of residents in Southern Arizona who struggle to find a meal. It is not a statistic that your eyes easily come across. So many folks inherit circumstances that may make it more difficult to put food on the table. The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona provides food and food-related services across a 23,000 square-mile region of Southern Arizona including Pima, Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, and Santa Cruz counties.
When she notices that a volunteer is getting nervous about taking too much time with a client, Martha Molinar, Pantry Floor Coordinator for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona tells them, “Don’t worry about the lines, just focus on the client, because yours may be the only smile they get today.”
We are lucky to have people like Martha who work hard every day to make certain that those in need are fed. “The clients using this program have really changed. Before, it was families that had either lost their jobs or were having problems in providing for their children. Now, it’s a lot of grandparents that are taking over, with children that are coming back to their home; grandparents that planned on being empty nesters, but are now feeding ten.”
When asked if they need volunteers or donations, Molinar did not hesitate to say, “We need both volunteers and donations. We are lucky, our volunteers really want to be here, they love our clients.” Many of us do not have the time to devote, but we may have dollars to give. If we donate before the end of the year, we can take a credit on our 2015 taxes as well. Donating to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona is also one of the few times that you can be positive that 100% of the donations will help feed people struggling with hunger in Southern Arizona.
Asking for help is not easy, “We want to make people feel comfortable, they should not be embarrassed to need help.” Helping people who are struggling with hunger takes more than a few people; it takes all of us. Some very generous donors have set up a matching gift challenge and offered to match your gift, so, with this doubled generosity, every ten dollars given will provide 80 meals to those in need. Let’s keep our tax dollars here in Southern Arizona and working for our community.
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