Tough choices faced by working poor households
l 43% forced to choose between paying for food vs. paying for rent/
mortgage
l 49% forced to choose between paying for food vs. paying for
utilities
l 32% forced to choose between paying for food vs. medicine/
medical care
l 77% forced to choose between paying for food vs. transportation/
fuel costs.
Association of Arizona Food Banks, Spring 2011
unexpected life changes, health challenges and economic crises.
Over the last two years YFC
has seen that more than 45 percent
of those relying on the local food
banks and pantries are working
multiple jobs to make ends meet.
The hungry are our seniors, our
veterans, our children, and may be
the neighbor living right next door.
Therefore, since joining YFC as its
Executive Director, I have accepted
the challenge and responsibility of
acting as a voice for the hungry.
Yavapai Food Council, in
partnership with Cornucopia
Community Advocates (CCA), has
participated in several countywide
studies over the last five years to
better understand the overall state
of hunger and the effects of poverty
and hunger on Yavapai County
residents. YFC and CCA have uncovered shocking information that
has never before been available.
For instance, the 2013 study Access
to School Meals in Yavapai County,
revealed that 19 out of 29 charter
schools in our county do not have
certified commercial kitchens
and therefore do not serve meals
to the students.
Yet, according to the Arizona
Department of Education, in October of 2013, Yavapai County had
an overall average of 56 percent
of the students qualified for free
or reduced cost meals based on
their family’s economic status. This
means that a sizeable number who
35 million people in the U.S. are hungry or don’t
know where their next meal is coming from, and
13 million of them are children. If another country
were doing this to our children, we’d be at war.
— Jeff Bridges – Actor, Activist
28 IMAGINE l Autumn 2015
are eligible and need food assistance
are falling through the cracks.
In addition to the challenges of
providing food for the hungry at
school, our local food banks and pantries are finding it is more and more
difficult to access and distribute the
quantity of food needed to meet the
rising needs of the increased adult
and family populations relying on
these services. Local Sedona and
Cottonwood food bank clients have
increased exponentially over the
last couple years. Rising Hope Food
Pantry of Cottonwood opened their
doors in 2012 to serve 24 families
a week; it now serves over 435
individuals per week. According
to surveys, this story is common to
every emergency food provider in
our County and our State.
My focus as the leader of
Yavapai Food Council is to understand the goals of the organizations
serving the hungry, and with their
input, determine the biggest challenges they experience in regards
to fulfilling these goals. The Food
Council then creates specific programs to fill the gaps identified
by the emergency food providers
and mobilizes the resources across
Yavapai County. In 2014 alone,
Yavapai Food Council and those
supporting our efforts teamed
together through various programs
to provide over 229,000 meals to the
hungry in Yavapai County!
I look forward to providing a
series of articles for future issues
of IMAGINE that will address the
specific challenges experienced in
our community and the programs
supported by Yavapai Food Council
to ensure food security for all in our
communities.