Sahuarita Food Bank receives largest food donation ever

LDS Sahuarita Stake President Aaron Kretschmer said the donation is made possible by their congregation members.

“As a church locally and worldwide, once a month we have a dedicated Sunday we call a fast day or fast Sunday and as part of that members are encouraged to donate what would basically be the equivalent that they would have paid for those two meals they skipped,” he said. “They can be more generous and many of them are. It allows for things like this to happen so we can work to help meet the needs of people who are maybe struggling.”

Kretschmer said some of the items in the donation comes from the farms the LDS owns and operates around the country.

For him, helping the food bank is inline with their own missions of giving.

“Our ultimate goal of course is to follow the example of our savior Jesus Christ and his disciples, and be able to help out in this way,” he said. “We also love to be able to join with our community members and other charities in the area, and worldwide we do such things as well.”

“This is made possible just because of fellow disciples of Jesus Christ who are trying to make it possible to feed those in need and take care of our brothers and sisters.”

SFB Executive Director Carlos Valles said the donation is coming at the right time considering they just experienced their busiest day in months.

“We had our highest day in 20 months last Tuesday when we had 153 families who came in,” he said. “The LDS community has always been extremely supportive of who we are, what we do and our presence in the community. Personally, I'm extremely grateful we have such a faith-based organization that truly cares about what we do.”

Valles said donations typically drop off by 75% to 80% in the spring and early summer, so they are planning to use this donation to help get them through until the end of the year.

“Our local faith-based organizations have really rallied, including a lot of smaller denominations who provide what they can,” he said. “We don't receive a lot of donations statistically at this time, so this is a big help.”

Office Administrator Kellie Tonks said the LDS also donated about six pallets of cereal when they ran out during COVID-19, and the food bank gets support from other churches in the area as well.

“There are several churches around here that donate regularly,” she said. “All the churches so far have been helping out how they can.”

She said they also have youth groups, missionaries and sisters come into volunteer regularly.

Valles said Tonks has been instrumental in working with area faith-based organizations and congregations.

“This donation comes at a perfect time because summer is typically our hardest time, and last year we had to dip into our emergency funds to last us,” Tonks said. “This time we don't have to worry as much to sustain through the rest of the year thanks to this donation.”

Valles said early spring and summer are the best times to donate to the food bank. For more information on how to donate, visit sahuaritafoodbank.org/donate-now.