Ellen Engel
Many new things are happening at Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank. With our donations and others, they are able to increase the work they do. Now they are able to provide emergency food boxes to 6,000 people per month. About 1500 children are on MCFB school meal programs each week of the school year. In 2018, 123,124 individuals sought hunger relief through all of their emergency food assistance programs.
Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank has an expansion project for 2019 in the works. The plan is to go from 2000 sq. ft. to 4000 sq. ft. More updates on that will be coming.
The March totals for each of our major organizational donors were as follows: Sun Lakes Duplicate Bridge Club, 66 pounds of food and $84.00; Sun Lakes Democratic Club, 132 pounds of food and $45.00; Unity of Sun Lakes, 12.5 pounds of food and $136.00; the Sun Lakes Jewish community, 83 pounds of food; and Sun Lakes Country Club, 60.5 pounds. So far in 2019, our Reach Out group has collected 1080 pounds of food and $925.00. It is wonderful that Sun Lakes can make these contributions every month.
Membership in local clubs and congregations is not a criterion for contributing. In fact, many individual donors show up at these two club-sponsored pickup points from all over Sun Lakes. The Bridge Club pickup takes place at the Risen Savior Lutheran Church on Alma School Road from 12:30 to 1:20 p.m. on the first Monday of each month, and the Sun Lakes Democratic Club accepts contributions on the second Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Sun Lakes Country Club (SLCC).
For those who cannot make it to the formal pickup locations at specific times, a collection point is also open during normal business hours at the Sun Lakes Country Club.
The food bank itself, which is located at 1368 Arizona Avenue in Chandler, also needs volunteers on a regular basis. If this opportunity interests you, please call their volunteer coordinator at 857-2296.
For further information, to arrange for organizational support for this very worthwhile program or to volunteer your own personal services, please contact Ellen Engel at 480-980-6841 or email her at [email protected].