Cynthia Chevalley
We know you often find yourself on donor solicitation or fundraising lists. We imagine that you will see another heart wrenching article about the needy in your local paper. Again and again you will receive letters urging you to feed the hungry. Requests for seasonal support at Thanksgiving and Christmas time pour in, painting pictures of grim and joyless holidays for those without food in the refrigerator.
In spite of the tens of billions of dollars spent by the government on child feeding programs like school meals, WIC, SNAP (food stamps being the largest child feeding program), and to say nothing of the thousands of private feeding sites nationwide, millions of children remain hungry on a daily basis. Children need food to grow, thrive and to do well in school.
Pulling on heart strings does not attack the root cause of hunger, namely poverty. And yes, we at Tri-Community Food Bank are simply doing what we have done for so many years. We feed people. They are good people, church going people, loving people but sadly, they are very poor people. The Food Bank can do very little about this fact.
We don’t have very good news for you! Our client single mothers are still struggling to feed their children. Seniors retired from the copper mines are unable to put food on the table. Their pensions are no larger than when they first retired 10 to 20 years ago. They are often paid as little as $200 to $300 monthly. Their homes are often paid for, so they do not qualify for SNAP (formerly called food stamps) and the lowest cost of living for most is to stay where they are. Many of our client families do not have reliable vehicles to transport them to grocery stores in Catalina or Oro Valley or to medical appointments in Tucson, 50 miles away from their homes.
Tri-Community Food Bank wishes to report that we are very efficient with your donations of food and funding. We pay no salaries; no paid employees, period. Our volunteers include unpaid day managers, no paid staff to lift and stock heavy inventory, no paid drivers and we don’t pay for expensive marketing campaigns. We are all volunteers. Our tax returns are all available for review; we are a recognized IRS 501(3) (c) nonprofit and an Arizona Charitable Organization. Tri-Community Food Bank is doing its very best to earn your trust. We are 25 volunteers, giving our own personal time to help feed 300 families, including 1000 people every month.
The best return on your investment would be fewer mouths to feed. But we are a food bank; we provide emergency food to hungry people – hungry families, children and seniors. We provide for only three days of emergency food; nine meals. We cannot solve the poverty problem in southeastern Pinal County. But we do what we can.
No, not the important letter you wanted to receive, we know. Please help us continue to do what you have generously helped us do in the past. With your help we will feed hungry people.