[RAICES] *LoCal CaLL for FOOD*

[meh01 at hampshire.edu]

Hey'all I got this email from folks at Arise for Social Justice---- I think we 
should really work on running a food drive on campus. Anyone who is interested 
please email me (meh01 at hampshire.edu) and we can figure out how to approach it.
Cool y'all... solidarity,
Mollie



 Right now we are in dire need of some help. When we started our pantry we 
never imagined it was as needed as it is. In the beginning people could come in 
once a week, then it had to become once a month, then every 2 months and this 
is where we have decided to stay we can see limiting visits any more than that, 
most area pantries have a limit of 3 times per year. We can only go shopping 
every 2 weeks and by the end of the first day after that, we are almost of 
food. Last week we went through almost 2,000 lbs. of food for 38 families, many 
of them large families or in some cases multiple families sharing a home, at 
least 1/2 of the people who came in where new to our pantry. Even our own 
members, staff and volunteers some of whom are on welfare, some homeless, some 
working poor, some just in a fix for the moment are using the pantry more 
often, out of 15 people who were in the office ! 
working  on Tuesday, 10 left with boxes. 
A drive that supplied enough to last even a couple of weeks would be a great 
help, because we have no money that is set aside just for the food pantry, we 
are forced to take what little we need by scrounging  from other programs. 
Monetarily it cost us about $100 every 2 weeks and although that isn't much for 
what we are able to do with it we are and have been running in the red. 
Please let me know if you would be willing to help organize a food drive on 
your campus.