The Quail Creek Rainbow Club held a community outreach planning meeting last June and discussed opportunities for the club to give back to our local communities. Club members decided to hold monthly food drive events for local food banks as one opportunity to support our community. Initially, the plan was to deliver the food collected to one of the larger food banks in our area, but after further research, we found that there are many underserved local communities with smaller food banks struggling to survive. The club agreed that the Arivaca Human Resource Center would be the recipient of the food drives, and in the first three monthly club events (July, August, and September), members collected and donated 300 pounds of nonperishable foods and other cash donations.
“We reached out to Ken Burns, director of the Arivaca Human Resource Center, to let him know about the Quail Creek Rainbow Club and our outreach food drive,” said club member Bob Lane, “and he is very excited to receive the club’s assistance and so thankful for all the generous donations from our members.”
Club member Jerry Cuffe added, “Food banks typically see the bulk of their donations around the winter holidays but end up with very low inventory in the spring and summer months when donations are down, so it’s important we keep that in mind as we think about the need for food donations year-round.”
The Arivaca Human Resource Center is a nonprofit organization serving the Southern Arizona rural community of Arivaca and surrounding areas by helping make food and other basic necessities accessible to all. They have a food pantry and each day provide upwards of 50 boxes of food and deliver 65 to 75 hot meals to people’s homes. They also provide other forms of care, such as utility relief and clothing. For more information about the Arivaca Human Resource Center or to make donations, go to their website www.arivacahr.com.