H&N 2nd Annual Golf Tournament at Southern Dunes - May 1st

We are so excited to have H &N Landscape as our tournament sponsor this year. We tee off at 8 a.m.on May 1st and hope to have a full tournament. Thank you to Southern Dunes Golf Club for hosting.

Southern Dunes is ranked No. 7 in Arizona per Golf Week's best courses you can play. I am told that it will challenge the most accomplished golfer while still accommodating the novice.

So come out and help us raise some funds for the food bank. We are hoping to put some money together for general fund as well as some capital money towards a new building that is much needed as we have truly out grown out current location.

Call me if you want to golf or if you are interested in a sponsorship as we still have a few available or log onto our website www.formaricopa.org 520-251-0226.

Other Fund Raising Events:

Riders Against Hunger -March 27,28th. For more information please check out their website

AAM-Flicks for Food-Movie in the Park-March 27th-6:30pm Come out and enjoy an evening of family fun with food, beverages and a movie. Bring your blanket, chairs and (2) non perishable food items as your entrance fee to Glennwilde Park Soccer Field B (18635 N. Alan Stephens Parkway). They will have 50/50 raffle and Silent Auction and great food and beverage for a donation. All proceeds and food donations will benefit FOR. There are some awesome sponsors and more sponsorships are still available if you are interested.

FOR is rolling out a computer database for client information the first week in March. Until now, we have managed this process with an excel spreadsheet and lists. It was taking hours to update and process the people that we serve and to put together our end of month reports. We were very happy to find a database on line that was built for food banks and a laptop was donated to FOR by a company that Alex Plaza works with. We are hoping that this will streamline our intake process each day that we hand out food and also our reporting process. We are also hoping that we will then be able to open a second day within a few weeks. Now we just need to find volunteers who are comfortable using a computer to help on food bank days. Anyone out there interested?

It's that time of year again. Thanks to our many volunteers, last year we had over 6,000 pounds of fresh vegetables from this garden. If you would like to help out with it this year, here is the schedule, location, and contact info. Thanks in advance for your help. Fresh vegetables really make a difference to the people we serve.Organized by: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Wow, what an incredible season we had this year. Each year I think that it can't possibly get any bigger. Yet it does and we seem as a town to come together and make it happen for folks. I am so impressed with Maricopa. This town truly ROCKS!!! We tell you what we need and you make it happen. When given the Opportunity people truly want to help.

In case you did not get that, the "O" in F.O.R, stands for Opportunity-Opportunities for individuals to serve in the community. We were able to give out 350 food boxes at both Thanksgiving and again at Christmas. Then we were able to give gifts to over 1000 children this year. You were part of making that happen. We want to thank you for that.

We had 2 trees up at Wal-Mart this year with tags on it for each of the children. The carnival where we handed out the food boxes and the gifts was a huge success. We had bouncy houses, popcorn, cotton candy and crafts to name a few things for the kids. We took the families pictures and they were able to take that photo home that night with them. I think they really loved that part again this year. Santa was there and he came in on a fire truck (thanks to Maricopa's finest fire department) and he listened to each child's wishes and gave them each a stuffed animal and then had a photo with the family.

We had many volunteers helping this year and we want to thank everyone who was part of making the holidays such a success. This list is by no means all inclusive but know that each person or group on this list had a huge impact on making the holidays special(I apologize in advance if I have forgotten anyone):

Church Of Celebration

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Wal-Mart

H&N Landscaping

Key Club

Santa Claus-(Greg Morrow)

Seventh Day Adventist Church

Community Of Hope Church

Arby's

Barkley Group Consulting

Impressive Imaging

Costco-Chandler

F.O.R-Volunteers

Maricopa Monitor

Maricopa Chamber of Commerce

Pinal County Sheriff Dept

Crum Party & Play Jumpers

Lily P Photography

Stage Stop

 U-Haul

Fitzgibbons Law Office

Journey United Methodist Church

Maricopa Public Library

Fry's Food

Basha's Food

City of Maricopa

Oasis Life Church

Our Lady of Grace Church

Austin Pearce was named this week as Arizona's middle school representative for the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, earning the chance to go to the nation's capitol in May with a shot at winning a national award.

The award, which recognizes community service efforts, was given to Pearce for his work in tending a community garden that provied fresh fruits and vegetables to F.O.R., where Austin has been donating his time since he was 10.

"It's really exciting to see the plan I had talked about with the Mayor and see all the plants start to grow," Pearce said of the garden idea, which he helped tend along with Maricopa High School truancy officer Bill Griffin and other volunteers from the Maricopa Christian Alliance. "I read a book about a flower garden and decided we should get produce on a regular basis."

When the first-year Desert Winds principal ,Joe Veres, saw a poster for the the award, Austin's project immediately came to mind, as he knew his garden had been successful on multiple levels.

Pearce will be awarded a silver medallion, a letter from President Barack Obama and $1,000 as part of the award. He will have a chance to compete against 101 other students (51 high schoolers and 51 middleschoolers representing each U.S. state and the District of Columbia) in Washington D.C. this spring.

There will be ten finalists - five each at the middle school and high school levels - with a gold medallion and $5,000 going to each of those winners. Additionally, each of the ten finalists can donate $5,000 to the charity of their choice.

Ways you can help:Below are items we are always in need of on a regular basis to meet the basic needs of the people that we serve:

Toiletries: Hotel samples make great donations!!!Shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, laundry detergent,toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, razors.

Food: Peanut Butter, Cereal, Rice, Beans, Pasta, Mac and Cheese, Tuna or any other canned meat, Canned veggie, Canned fruit, Canned tomato products or any non-perishable food item you might have.

Other: Zip Loc bags-sandwich size (to distribute rice and beans etc)Feminine Hygiene productsTrash bags with draw stringsCleaning products

Clothing: Most needed are Men's and children's Clothing, Baby Clothing, Shoes

Baby Needs:Diapers (all sizes, including pull ups)Wet wipesFormulaBaby food/cereal

Volunteer Positions Available:Volunteers are welcome any day we are open, but below is a list of days and positions that are most needed RIGHT NOW:

Mondays: Computer intake, Truck Driver, Tuesdays: Truck Driver and Food Pick up Person,Wednesday: Truck Driver and food Pick up person, Thursday: Truck Driver and Food Pick up Person, Computer Intake Person, Friday; Truck driver and Food Pick up Person, Saturday: Food Pick Up person

If interested in any of these positions please email info@formaricopa.org

We served over 26,000 people this last year. Well over 80,000 lbs of food was donated last year. We are now gleaning from Wal-Mart, Costco (Chandler location), Fry's, Basha's & Pizza Hut. We now have a refrigerated truck!!!!