Jim Meagher

The annual return of our neighbors during the past few weeks is a welcome and highly anticipated event in our Sun Lakes community. However, as we who have been here have experienced, this has been a very long and severe summer season. The clients at Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank haven’t had the resources to care for themselves in a manner in which they are able to be comfortable and often even safe. They know so well that hunger does not know what the word “vacation” means. Hunger is always either present or absent, winter, spring, summer or fall. Your Reach Out Sun Lakes team, working with our Sun Lakes community as our partner, helps Matthew’s Crossing to make hunger as absent as possible in the East Valley.

Please join us and make food and financial contributions now, as we enter the last quarter of the year. We will soon celebrate Thanksgiving Day. What a wonderful time to help out in a big way to assist Matthew’s Crossing as they do all they can to make healthy and seasonal food available for their clients’ families. That preparation is done weeks in advance. Help now if you can. Time is of the essence. The point is, “Hunger is not an issue of charity; it is an issue of Justice.” —Jacques Diouf

Reach Out Sun Lakes collects food and financial donations from the following sites, and their year-to-date October donation totals are as follows:

Sun Lakes Duplicate Bridge Club (meets at Risen Savior Lutheran Church; collection is the second Tuesday of each month in the south parking lot between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m.): 523 pounds of food and $927 cash

Democratic Club of Sun Lakes (pickup is in the east parking lot at Sun Lakes Country Club before their monthly meeting): 207 pounds of food and $450 cash

Unity Church: 192 pounds of food and $1,020 cash

Sun Lakes Country Club Phase 1 (donate at Sun Lakes Country Club during their normal working hours in the donation box at the front desk): 141 pounds of food and $207 cash

In total, our team has collected $2,567 and 1,062 pounds of food for Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank year to date 2023.

If you have questions or wish to schedule a visit or make a donation at an alternate time or location, contact Jim Meagher of Reach Out Sun Lakes at [email protected] or by phone at 630-346-1966.