August 2024
Dear Friends,
The slowdown has begun! I am unhappy to report that the supply of veggies for our Monday veggie distribution has dwindled. For two weeks straight our volunteer crew traveled to Nogales to pick up rescued produce only to find none at all or a very diminished supply. This routinely occurs each year when the supply of Mexican vegetables wanes as the harvest season reaches its end.
Sometimes, even at season’s end, a few vegetables are available, and our volunteers will continue to monitor the supply of produce for our Monday distributions.
We don’t really know what, if anything Is available on a given Monday so our friends and neighbors should check our distribution spot at 10:30 am (outside the Patagonia Senior Citizen’s center). If our tables are set up, we are open. We appreciate your patience while we navigate the veggie season ups and downs.
On Saturday August 10, at our monthly Supplemental Food Distribution we handed out 96 food bags of perishable and non-perishable foods. In addition to the surge in supplemental food bags distributed we also experienced a substantial increase in emergency food bag requests. This is a spike in numbers which is unusual for August. Usually in summer demand for our food slightly diminishes.
The increases in need, if sustained, will indicate the increasing difficulty our clients have purchasing food after literally years of high inflation and price increases.
The food bank is not immune to higher prices and costs and always seeks new and innovative ways to obtain funds and food to distribute.
We received the generous donation this month of hundreds of pounds of frozen beef donated by South32. They delivered beef that filled both our large freezers totaling 96 cubic feet of food. This high-quality protein food will substantially increase the nutritional health of our clients over the next few months. Currently we are inventorying this windfall and integrating its distribution into our fall and winter plans.
With the fall season upon us, we greatly appreciate your support of the Food Bank and look forward to providing for our citizens most in need during the holiday season.
Jim
Jim