MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Thanks to donations from the community, the Marana Food Bank and Community Resource Center now has the keys to a 22-foot refrigerated box truck.
In April, the food bank started a fundraiser with the goal of raising $25,000. They planned to pull the rest of the money from their operations budget to purchase a box truck to help pick up large amounts of food. However, they ended up raising $45,000, which was enough to cover the entire cost of the truck.
“We got to the $25,000 mark and a private individual came in and wrote a check for the additional amount, the difference, because she felt that we should not take from our operations budget,” Marana Food Bank Executive Director, Carlos Valles said. “So 100% of the box truck was raised locally.”
The money was raised in only 60 days. Valles said, “We were going to at least forecast 6 to 12 months to do the fundraiser, but again in 60 days it told us a great deal about the community of Marana and how much the residents care about one another.”
Immediately after purchasing the truck in California, they were able to fill it up with food – before, that load would have cost about $5,000 to transport. The food bank says it plans to continue using the truck for large shipments like this.
“Sometimes we get a call from a food producer and they say, ‘hey can you pick this up? Otherwise if you can’t pick it up we have to take it to the landfill.’ And now we have the capacity to immediately dispatch the box truck and go and collect the food in a proper refrigerated truck,” Valles said.
The food bank is located at 11734 W. Grier Rd. and is always accepting donations and volunteers.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
