According to the Kids Count Data Book, Arizona ranks 42nd in the nation -- near the bottom -- for the welfare of its children. Arizona's families rank 44th in median income, 48th for the number of children without health insurance, and 45th for births to teenagers. Such statistics, combined with decreasing government funding for social assistance, point to the need for our Family Assistance programs.


The Food and Clothing Bank

Nothing breaks your heart like a hungry child. We opened the Food and Clothing Bank more than twenty years ago to stop the hunger in our community.

Currently, this ministry:

• Feeds approximately 40 families each week

• Provides food boxes and distributes clothing to working families who can't make ends meet

• Keeps track of families and their needs through an application and ID process

• Interviews and provides counsel to heads of households in Spanish or English

• Invites all recipients to a time of Bible meditation and prayer for needs, all offered in Spanish

TESTIMONY

Martina Parra
Neighborhood Ministries Food Bank Coordinator
(translated from Spanish}

Dios los bendiga!

I would like to talk about how it was, the time I came to know the food bank, through a friend. She told me they were helping people with a box of food. I went for help and that is where I met Kit.

She invited me many times to Bible Studies and I kept telling her I would go. I kept coming to the food bank She kept inviting me, until that day I felt something telling me I had to go. I went, and it was something wonderful for me. I accepted our Lord in my heart as my Savior now over ten years ago.

I have five children and they are growing in the Lord. Now I work in the food bank for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ our Savior. Now I talk with people who don't know Him, hoping they will accept Him in their heart as their Savior. We not only need food for the body but we need spiritual food for the soul. Dios los bendiga! (God bless you!)