Food bank thankful for donations, but bounty is gone

Source: The Sun, Yuma, Ariz.文件倉Aug. 31--The good news: Yuma's food bank surpassed its heady goal for a donation campaign several days ahead of deadline.The bad news: A lot of the bounty collected has already left the shelves.Leaders at the Yuma Community Food Bank say they are tremendously grateful for local generosity that contributed 23,157 pounds of food by Thursday, 3,157 pounds more than leaders had hoped to gather by Sunday. In addition to food, nearly 8,000 diapers have been donated so far.Private citizens made donations toward the Stock our Shelves (SOS) campaign and nearly 60 businesses and organizations hosted food drives."The entire community of Yuma really stepped up to the plate," said Mike Ivers, president and CEO of the Yuma Community Food Bank. "This just feels awesome. I feel privileged to work and live in a community that is this generous."On July 17, Ivers told the Yuma Sun that the food bank's coolers were completely empty. "Today we have no meat and no bread, no diapers and no formula," he said at the time, announcing the SOS campaign.The food bank broke a major record May 15 when the organization served 480 families on a single day. That's the highest number since the food bank opened in 1978. The food bank typically serves 2,600 people each month.But Ivers says there's a dash of sour along with the sweetness when it comes to doing the math for the campaign. He stressed that the community's generosity remains strong, but unfortunately, local hunger remains ravenous.He said he certainly wishes that 23,157 pounds of food still filled the food bank's shelves and coolers."We've hit our goal, but the 4,454 pounds of food the Border Patrol gave? It was gone in two days. One group gave us a financial donation and we bought 1,200 pounds of hamburger meat and it was gone within three days."The food bank's stock of baby formula is also once again depleted.After "thank you," Ivers' next message for the community is "please ke存倉p giving.""We are going to need more," he said flatly. "The need is still high, as you can see when you have the highest unemployment rate in the United States of America."But back on the topic of good news, Ivers praised the many major donations given during the SOS campaign. He pointed to the Border Patrol donation and to Yuma Regional Medical Center's donation of 5,008 pounds of food."It's fantastic. Those are some of the biggest and I have tons of others," the food bank leader said.He also celebrated the many small donations that came together to take the food bank toward its big goal."Then you have the mom driving by the food bank with her sons who saw the long lines and they said 'Mom, we need to do something.' So they went to the store with their own money and bought three loaves of bread," Ivers said with delight. "This goal would not have been reached without the generosity of the whole community."The community will have ample chances to continue donating to the food bank during September, which is Hunger Action Month."The donations go quickly. The need is always going to be there," said Beryl Durazo, resource and development assistant for the food bank. "In Yuma County, 42.7 percent of children are food insecure." That figure translates into 23,420 of children under the age of 18.SOS hasn't been the food bank's only campaign, however. Ivers says the organization is also "off to a great start" with its Step up to the Plate campaign, which aims to raise $1.5 million by February. To help boost that capital campaign, Ivers recently sent out 475 letters to past food bank supporters across the nation.He declined to confirm how much has been pledged so far, but said "it is picking up and moving along."For more information of either of its campaigns, call the Yuma Community Food Bank at 343-1243.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Sun (Yuma, Ariz.) Visit The Sun (Yuma, Ariz.) at .yumasun.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉