Feeding the Hungry Update
Wow! Thanks! Those are two words that sum up Harriet and
my feelings quite well. As many of you
know, we are not good at fund raising.
Our thoughts are always, “yes, a few will give a little”, and then we
can move on and get over it.
Well, we put out the word that our annual fashion show was
cancelled due to the COVID-19 Virus, and the real losers would be the people
that we normally help who are the poorest of the poor in our community.
The church that we attend donates some basic food items to
some of these people weekly, but we feel that every family is different and has
different needs. Young families with
babies may need diapers, and/or special food.
Others may need medicine from time to time. Others may have young kids in school that
need items for lunches. This is why we
feel that the food vouchers are very important to the poor families that we
help.
Our Feeding the Hungry program has been, and will continue
to be, an ongoing program. We don’t
expect to help all the families become self sufficient financially. We will always have a few families that need
help with enough finances to buy food and other necessities. Between donations, and the fashion show that
we put on each year, we hope to have enough money to buy the food vouchers
through the entire year.
Since about the 1st of April the government has
really clamped down on individual and group activities and the businesses that
are not considered to be critical. The
beaches are closed, out-of-doors individual activities are curtailed, and some
of the small towns have closed to everyone except the local area people and
those people generally need to have a reason to gain entry to the town.
Many people are out of work because the government has closed
so many businesses. Restaurants, hotels,
time shares, rental units, schools, massage centers, sports clubs, and all
construction work! Many families now
have no income since they cannot work so there is no money coming in to feed
the families.
In late March a group of individuals started another food
help program, the Los Barriles Food Bank. The food bank was started here in the
community when various folks saw the obvious need for food when sources of
income for the local Mexicans dried up. The
Los Barriles Food Bank is doing a very needed help during this time of people
not being able to work. The food bank is
supplying food to as many as 1000 families per week. We hope that the government will let these
people go back to work soon so they can once again provide for their own
needs.
We are truly amazed how many people helped us financially with
the Feeding the Hungry Program. These
people have been so generous that we have been able help some additional
families that are not receiving food from the food bank. This is where the “Wow”, and “Thank you” come
in!! To all our supporters, again we say
“Wow”, and “Thank you”! We
have been very fortunate to have Chuy Castro involved with the Feeding the
Hungry Program from the start. He has
been helping the food bank with deliveries as well and knows the needs of the
people intimately.
Who would have thought that the COVID-19 Virus would come
and turn the whole world up side down!
For now, we are glad that we can help a few very needy families. If you would like to continue helping, our
PayPal site is available with no fees attached at PayPal.Me/BHPurkey .
To all our many contributors, again we say “Wow”, and
“Thank you”!
Ben and Harriet Purkey
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