Donna Gillen
’Tis the season to give of ourselves to help others in need. The PebbleCreek Tennis Club will once again hold their St. Mary’s Food Drive, which starts Oct. 30 and culminates with our Tournament and Social honoring Jerry Santy on Nov. 15.
Last year the club made a generous donation of canned goods to the food bank. This year, as many of you know, the need is even greater than ever. Record high prices at the pump and incredible inflation on our grocery bills has hurt many of our neighbors in the West Valley. Giving from our hearts will be a Godsend to many people with upcoming holidays in the next two months. Our goal is to meet or exceed last year’s donation of over 500 pounds of canned items. We know that with enough generous souls in PebbleCreek, we can easily increase this desperate donation.
After reaching out to Sabrina Johnston at St. Mary’s Food Bank, the following facts were given with regard to this year’s unique needs from the community here in Maricopa County:
* At our two distribution centers in Phoenix and Surprise we are seeing an average of 1,169 clients per day.
* With this increase in clients, the production of our emergency food boxes (EFBs) has increased from 30,000 a month to 60,000 a month.
* Nearly 30% of our neighbors are considered working poor, living on wages that barely cover housing and other basic necessities.
* 1 in 4 children grow up in poverty with food insecurity. Through our Backpack program, we collaborate with more than 100 schools and community centers to provide 7,000 backpacks per week to families across the state. These backpacks are filled with food for the children and their families for their weekend needs.
Ms. Johnston also has forwarded a list of their most needed items at this time. They are as follows: canned products: fruit, soup, protein, vegetables; rice and beans; cereal; pasta; and peanut butter. An additional request has also gone out for volunteers to help pack food boxes.
PebbleCreek, we can do our part to help those in need. Please drop off your food donation to either of the Sports Complex buildings by the tennis courts at Tuscany Falls or Eagle’s Nest. There will be boxes available for you to place your donations starting Oct. 30. Thank you for your generosity and your personal involvement in making this world a better place one “can” at a time.
St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization depending only on our generosity to survive. St. Mary’s Food Bank is a qualifying charity of the Arizona Charitable Tax Credit—Qualifying Charitable Organization Code 20208.