1 minute read
On Our Cover
from Up The Hill
People ask, what are those CantaMia people at the end of Estrella Pkwy up to? CantaMia’s residents do many things. One of the most rewarding is giving back to our community in many ways. We talk about it often. One day a few residents had the idea to help the local Aqua Fria Food Bank on a year-round basis. We knew they received significant support during the Fall holidays, but they needed help during the rest of the year. And so, this idea was born.
Aqua Fria Food and Clothing Bank opened in 1981 and serves Goodyear and surrounding areas. Each year AFFCB serves roughly 50,000 residents of the southwest valley with emergency food. In June, 2022 we “tested” our program with a few streets in CantaMia. Residents were told to leave any food donations on the curb by their house and a handful of resident volunteers drove around those streets to collect the food donations, then delivered the food to AFFCB. This made it easy for residents to donate and easy for the group to collect the food. In that first collection, of the 58 targeted houses, 21 homes donated 220 lbs of food!
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We knew we were on to something that would make a difference!
Our program has continually grown; and we have completed collections in the entire CantaMia community in August and October 2022, and February 2023. Now over 60 volunteers drive around CantaMia to collect food at resident driveways and deliver it to AFFCB. Each volunteer driver has 2-3 helpers to pick up the food donations and each driver is assigned a section of CantaMia. To date, we have collected and delivered to AFFCB nearly 4 TONS of donated food! Our goal for 2023 is to collect 10,000 lbs of food! If we each give a little, it quickly adds up!
Remaining 2023 collections; April, June, August and October. If you live in CantaMia, details will be in the CantaMia e-blasts. If you live outside CantaMia and would like information to start your own food collection in your community, feel free to contact Phebe at phebejones@hotmail. com
CantaMians do many things in retirement, and we are proud to say it includes helping others in need.
Submitted by Phoebe Jones, CantaMia resident
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