Who is Youth Impact
This past Saturday we had a great turn out for both, families in need and volunteers. We continue our partnership with El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, which is a local Food Bank. In case you’re new to our site, we are a local El Paso non-profit Food Pantry that serves all those in need within El Paso and surrounding areas.
Being that there are many families who struggle financially, Youth Impact continues to make a difference by providing to those in need with healthful food items such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, meats, poultry, fish and other canned goods.
According to Feeding America, 1 in 7 people struggle with hunger and 1 in 4 children as well. They indicate that only here in Texas:
4,277,540 people are struggling with hunger – and of them 1,676,740 are children
Feeding America Article
Youth Impact saw the need within the local El Paso community and therefore was created to reduce some of the stress families face day in and day out with not knowing where their next meal would come from.
Who does Youth Impact Serve
Many families within the community are of low-income households and many receive government assistance. Although, some of the families don’t receive this assistance and must find help elsewhere.
According to Celia Coles, CEO of Feeding Texas, she mentions that poverty equals hunger based on the fact that due to patrons not being employed and other factors, causing higher rates of food insecurities.
Youth Impact wants to alleviate these hunger issues by opening our food pantry every 3rd Saturday of the month and serve them. Many seniors around the community go through this insecurity due mainly because many of them have limited English proficiency or live in low-income communities.
Although families might struggle with food insecurity, there are health issues that may arise especially for the elderly. According to this article, The Facts behind Senior Hunger, elders suffer more health-related issues when there is malnourishment. Such issues are depression, diabetes, and heart disease.
Many don’t qualify for government assistance, which that’s where we want to step in and help those that don’t qualify. Of course, we can’t do this alone and also seek your help as a community.
According to Latino Hunger Research:
“Hispanic children and their families are less likely to receive help from SNAP than compared to non-Hispanic white or African-American children.”
If you or someone you know needs to apply for SNAP benefits or see if you qualify, be sure to learn how your Texas benefits can help you.
How You Can Help Youth Impact
As a non-profit organization, we seek grants from local businesses and other organizations willing to help our cause. We also accept monetary and in-kind donations from the community. If you wish to donate or volunteer, feel free to contact us on Facebook or contact us by email.
Besides helping with monetary donations, we also invite you to volunteer at our Fort Boulevard location. We especially welcome the youth as they are
From the youngest of only a few months to the youth that thinks the Floss Dance is cool! Check out the short video on our Facebook page or our Instagram page to see how they danced of joy being here to serve.
But not only the youth was there but those that are young at heart too, the adults.
Below, we have our Executive Director on the left with one of our volunteers.
Some volunteers carry out and unpack fish from our freezer to provide to our patrons. While other volunteers help distribute the food bags and carry them out for them.
Some volunteers greet and guide our patrons to the registration area and notate their information and get a head count of those helped out.
No matter what type of volunteer work you wish to provide, we can always use the help.
The Impact of our Food Pantry
We were able to serve 95 patrons in total plus their families at home for a total of 1,400 pounds of food.
We had a total of 30 volunteers between youth and adults.
Here you can see the line of patrons forming as we get ready to open our doors.
Conclusion
There are many ways you can help your community which volunteering and donating are just a few.
We have our monthly food pantry every 3rd Saturday of the month if you wish to volunteer or provide any donations.
If you are interested in volunteering or donating, please feel free to contact us.
To see more pictures of our February Food Pantry, visit our Facebook page.
Thank you to all our volunteers for making this event a SUCCESS! We hope to see you in our upcoming event.
Upcoming Food Pantry
