SPOTLIGHT ON THE TCF
Trends Charitable Fund is proud to help …
Kitchen on the Street Longtime Arizona resident Lisa Scarpinato and her family (husband Vince and daughter Taylor) were serving at various non-profits around the Valley but felt a deeper call to serve the hurting. During dinner one night in September 2006, Lisa asked friend Dennis Cagle, an Anglican Bishop and principal of Imagine Charter Schools, “Dennis, how is your school year going?” Lisa imagined he would respond with comments on enrollment or test scores. As the room fell silent (even the children stopped talking), tears began to roll down Dennis’ face. He described his recent experience watching a second-grade girl scavenge through the cafeteria trash and trays left by other students, picking up half-eaten sandwiches and pizza, food others had discarded as no good or not needed. As Dennis watched her wrap the food in napkins and put it in her pockets, his heart was broken. He followed her to class and found that she was a refugee from Sudan, her parents did not speak English, had no transportation and had difficulty in knowing what to buy at the grocery store or how to prepare it for the family. The food this little girl collected from the school trash was her way of providing her brother and sister with food on the weekends! Sadly, thousands of Arizona children receive breakfast and lunch at school but have no consistent source of food on weekends. Lisa’s heart broke for this little girl. She mentally traded places with the girl’s mother, wondering how she would feel if she had to tell her daughter on a Saturday, “I am sorry, honey, I know you are hungry today, but you will have to wait until you get to school Monday. We have no food.” At that moment, she and Vince exchanged a glance and no words were needed to express their thoughts. Dennis’ words were a call to action, an answer to prayer, the prayer of the Scarpinato family in who they should serve and how. That night they began the process of starting the 501c3 called Kitchen on the Street. Since that lifechanging night, the organization has grown from serving Bags of Hope (backpacks of food) to 30 students each weekend the first
10
TRENDS MAGAZINE
year to serving over 1,100 each weekend in Arizona and Texas this year. Programs have expanded to include providing nonperishable food boxes to families in crisis, hosting monthly fresh food distributions to assist families in getting produce outside of their budgetary reach, and their most recent venture, a food truck that makes them an actual “kitchen on the street,” courtesy of the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation. The Kitchen on the Street transforms the organization’s reach by allowing them to go into economically distressed neighborhoods and give food to people in need. It also allows them to proactively combat hunger by using it as a mobile classroom to teach cooking and nutrition classes with families. Finally, it acts as a revenue source to fund the Bags of Hope program by providing catering services for private and corporate events. Vince Scarpinato is a former Philadelphia chef. He volunteers his time to work alongside other volunteers, many of whom are former “kitchen” folks who have a heart for serving the hungry. The organization recently secured a facility of its own after many years of operating from the Scarpinatos’ home and a classroom at a school in Paradise Valley. Their facility is
located just off the Loop 101 Freeway and Cave Creek. The initial year’s rent was provided by Discount Tire. Over 25,000 Bags of Hope were given to hungry children last year through the Kitchen on the Street program. The organization relies on the generosity of the community in giving of their time, talent and funds to meet the needs of the hurting. There are ways to support this faith-based organization. Prayers are appreciated! You can volunteer. Join their Enews online at www.kitchenonthestreet.org. To stay informed of volunteer opportunities become a Kitchen on the Street Fan on Facebook. Adopt a hungry child for $25 per month. Less than a $1 a day feeds a child for the entire month! Host a food drive or an event to benefit Kitchen on the Street. Schedule the Kitchen on the Street mobile kitchen to cater an event (corporate luncheon, dinner party, social event, festival). All proceeds benefit hungry kids in Arizona. For more information please e-mail info@kitchenonthestreet.org, visit www. kitchenonthestreet.org or call 480.200.4968. Our address is 21006 N. 22nd Street, #C1, Phoenix.