Jim Meagher
Here in the Valley of the Sun, February is one of our very best months of the year to enjoy living in the Desert Southwest. We usually have our best weather of the year in late winter. Cactus League teams are summoning their players to their desert training facilities. The first pitch will soon pass over home plate at our favorite ballparks. At the same time, March Madness brackets are starting to be a topic of discussion, and last but not least—you guessed right! It is Valentine’s Day on the 14th. Cards, candy, and flowers will be sold in record numbers as we seek to show our favorite “Valentines” just how much we love them. May I suggest that there is also no better time to remember those who find many of the aforementioned pleasures in life out of reach because they simply have to focus on putting sufficient calories in the mouths of their families in any way they can. Attending a Cactus League game or playing a round of golf or a pickleball game is not part of their life on a glorious February day in the desert. Putting sufficient food on the table for their loved ones is how they celebrate Valentine’s Day in a family who suffers from food scarcity.
That reality is an opportunity for us. The opportunity is to step into the breach and be an anonymous Valentine to people we don’t know personally and fill that food void through a generous food or cash donation during this month of February. Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank is our link to those people, as they distribute the food we provide to them through our donations to them through Reach Out Sun Lakes. We are your “go between” in Sun Lakes to our local food bank in Chandler, Matthew’s Crossing. They will be doing all they can to provide, in their own ways, some “treats” that provide some Valentine joy to their “guests” who go there and find an understanding smile and a supply of groceries for them to bring home to their family members. Today, as I was delivering food and checks to Matthew’s Crossing from one of our local organization’s scheduled food donation nights, I could barely get in the strip mall in North Chandler where they are housed because of the large number of cars waiting in line to get food for themselves and their families.
If you are a member of one of our partner organizations (listed below), please support their monthly food donation program. Otherwise, contact me to arrange a convenient time to pick up food at your home. Cash donations can be made online at the Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank website, which is matthewscrossing.org. Reach Out Sun Lakes picks up and delivers it to Matthew’s Crossing. Our primary source of food and financial donations for Matthew’s Crossing is our partner organizations: Sun Lakes Democratic Club, Chandler Democratic Club, Unity Church Community of Sun Lakes, Sun Lakes Country Club Community, and the Bridge Club of Sun Lakes. I am Jim Meagher. Text or call me at 630-346-1966 or email me at paloverdejim@gmail.com with questions or donations to be picked up.