Jim Meagher
It’s April, and it’s spring again! You probably have turned off your “heaters” and set your thermostat back on the “cool” cycle. Short and ultra-light attire has replaced the long-sleeved and cozy garments we have been wearing. Life remains pretty much the same for Sun Lakers from month to month. Not so with Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank (MCFB). As you may know, the federal program called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recently implemented significant changes. Recipients are required to work if they are physically able. Most recipients from MCFB are employed; however, there’s a major gotcha now. Even a minimum wage job in Arizona pays more than the allowed maximum monthly income. Their income exceeds the new SNAP guidelines. If you aren’t working, you don’t get benefits. The net effect to MCFB is their average daily “demand” for food skyrocketed to an average level of 130 families per day since those changes were put in place earlier this year. This computes to nearly 1,560 meals per day in aggregate for those families.
My request is familiar if you regularly read our article. MCFB needs your help now. Spring is about new life. We see it in our cacti, citrus, and other landscape plants that make our surroundings so beautiful and provide us with nutritious and delicious food. Let’s dig down deep now and regularly throughout this year and be generous to those who are not as fortunate as we are and bring spring to them.
A key donation consideration is, $1 donated to MCFB is the equivalent of four meals given in a family food box. That’s not a typo. MCFB purchases food from sources that acquire massive quantities of food on pallets, and they deliver it to Matthew’s Crossing. So they acquire food in bulk quantities that we can’t purchase at our supermarkets, the point being that your $25 donated to MCFB purchases the equivalent of 100 meals and is tax deductible. That same $25 spent on food purchased at a value-priced supermarket by us will purchase ???. I’ll let you decide how many meals can be purchased for $25 at today’s prices.
Most importantly, please donate the way you wish—just donate. The MCFB website is matthewscrossing.org. You will find it convenient to make a cash donation online in that way. As you know, Reach Out Sun Lakes collects food donated by partner organizations at their religious services or meetings on a regular basis. If you wish to have information to donate in that way, or on anything else related to MCFB or partnering with us, please contact me, Jim Meagher, at paloverdejim@gmail.com or send a text to 630-346-1966.