SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Peach’s Pantry feeds Kindergarten through 12th grade students and their families weekly, but right now, they're taking on their biggest challenge of the year. The Sierra Vista-based nonprofit, is gearing up for Thanksgiving next week, but needs the community's help for its largest distribution.
Founder and Executive Director, Sarah Pacheco, says they're preparing to make and hand out 320 Thanksgiving dinner boxes. This is the largest number of boxes they've given out in their eight years of the Thanksgiving distribution.
“It’s definitely grown in the past many years,” Pacheco said. “We can't do it alone.”
Pacheco says they have more than 200 turkeys and need 100 more to fill their demand this Thanksgiving. All of the turkeys they receive are donated or will be purchased by the pantry.
“I think that it's important to remember that we're not just feeding them Thanksgiving today," she said. "This is like a big gift to give them a couple weeks of food.”
Pacheco says seeing what the food means to the families when they get it makes the hard work worth it.
"(A mom) just saw me carrying in the turkeys, and started bawling," she said. "She was so grateful.”
The nonprofit started 11 years ago, providing food for the the six schools in the Sierra Vista Unified School District. They began giving away turkeys eight years ago, in a collaboration with the Elks Lodge in Sierra Vista. The lodge writes a grant for the pantry, which then uses the funds to purchase canned goods to go with the turkeys.
“Poverty and the reasons that people are struggling to make ends meet can be really complicated, and the reasons can vary, but feeding someone is not a complicated issue,” the founder said.
Pacheco says Peach's Pantry is now working with 24 schools in Sierra Vista, Palominas and Huachuca City. They provide food bags weekly to students and their families.
"There could be needs out there (we don't know about)," Pacheco said. "We're doing what we can, but...we're not seeing everybody.”
She says they’re working with community partners like the Salvation Army for storage of the turkeys, and the Elks Lodge for grant money, to help as much as possible.
"We can't do it alone, we're community-supported and volunteer-run, and we're just so grateful for all the help,” Pacheco said.
Turkeys can be dropped off at the Salvation Army in Sierra Vista, but staff need to be told it's for Peach's Pantry when it's dropped off. People should contact Peach's Pantry, at (520) 249-0139, to drop off other donations.
----
——-
Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
