July 2024

Dear Friends,

The saga continues!  We have been able to keep up with our Monday vegetable distribution in downtown Patagonia through July, with no end in sight.  Our volunteer crew travels every Monday to Nogales to pick up rescued produce for distribution outside the senior center from 10:30 to 11:30m to the public.

They never know what, if anything, will be available.  Still, they have persevered, bringing fresh seasonal vegetables to our community every week this summer.

On Saturday July 13, at our monthly supplemental food distribution we handed out 81 food bags of perishable and non-perishable foods.  This is an average number for summer but it doesn’t include a spike in emergency food bags that we delivered to clients in need in July.

We received the generous donation this month of a brand new 24-cubic foot freezer that will be filled with beef donated from a ranch owned by South32.  This high-quality food will substantially increase the nutritional health of our clients over the next few months.

The food bank also purchased a commercial freezer with grant funds provided by The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. Because of the generosity of local foundations, the food bank now has two commercial refrigerators (totaling more than 90 cubic feet of refrigerated storage) and two freezers (totaling 48 cubic feet of freezer storage) that we will utilize to feed our clients!

This month the food bank partnered with the Arizona Department of Education – Homeless Teens Program by posting a large banner with resources and information on the railing at the food bank.  We are pleased to be able to help promote this important program.

Thank you for making east Santa Cruz County the vibrant, caring, community-oriented place that it is.

Jim