It was a healthier year than those of past COVID years. But high prices from inflation, that everyone was experiencing, hit us hard. We were supplying groceries for up to 1600 households a month. Which doubled the number of people we fed in the last few years. Not only did we have more people needing our services with the high inflation we had to pay more for everything.
With your generosity the food bank was able to meet the demands.
We split from working with the government agencies for their services as they wanted to make changes that were not good for our community.
This caused us to look elsewhere for groceries. We were successful in finding other outlets to maintain our supplies. But the volunteers had to travel to Parker and Phoenix to pickup groceries which put a lot of miles on our truck and it needed expensive repairs. We usually would have received another truck by now from the county but they have not received their new trucks because of shortages. So when our truck was not working we had to rent a U-Haul truck to pick up groceries which was expensive and had not been planned for in our budget.
Carol's Closet stayed busy supplying clothes and toiletries to many people who just needed a hand up. All the clothes are donated and most toiletries are purchased.
We had a big successful Yard Sale Fundraiser at the food bank. Lots of work and fun. It was amazing all the really great items that were donated for us to sell.
Santa's Workshop was booked solid and busier than ever. To everyone's delight the children's program from the Alliance Church served breakfast and lunch again.
Soup & Chowder was delicious as ever. Sam Saxton entertained everyone.
Rver's help us meet our needs. Meet In Q RV Group was back and raised $15,000 with raffles for the food bank, next season they are going to challenge other groups to raise funds. RVer TV and Lectric E-Bikes held a raffle for an electric bike to raise fund for the Quartzsite Food Bank at the Tyson Wells Store. Lit Cactus RV group raised funds to help the food bank. Many individuals, churches and businesses also raised funds to keep our doors open.
Our management and volunteers worked very hard to help everyone who came to us for help. They put in many hours this year accepting deliveries, stocking, hand out everything, delivering and maintaining the food bank and Carol's Closet. They are the heart of the food bank. The best group of people that work hard but still have fun.
The continued support of our generous community donating time, money and food kept our doors open. We would like to express our appreciation to everyone who helped us achieve so much this year. With your continued support we will continue to serve our community.