“It’s your neighbors,” AR Pointer told me.
I had been asking AR about the organization she started in the small town of Aromas, in south Santa Cruz County, called Neighbors Helping Neighbors. It’s one of Second Harvest’s newest member agencies, and twice a month the group distributes fresh produce provided by the food bank to families in need.
“Who comes to the food distributions?” I had asked AR.
She answered, “It’s your neighbors. It’s the people next door to you that you don’t even know need help.”
“There’s lots of long-time residents” in Aromas, AR explained (AR is Pointer’s first name, not her initials). “We all know each other… [But] almost everybody who comes down says, ‘I’m surprised—I’m surprised to see so many of my neighbors here.’ ”
Even in a small town, knowing who lives where doesn’t necessarily mean you know if they need food.
"...What that says to me is, ‘You’ve never been hungry. You’ve never had to stand in line to get food.’ Because walking through a food line is a very humbling experience."
And it would be easy to assume that most of those in need are people without jobs, or maybe farmworkers, who often struggle to find consistent field work throughout the year. But AR was surprised by who needed food.
“It’s mostly the working poor,” AR explained. “They come rushing in sometimes because we’re only open between 5 and 6” and they’ve just got off of work.
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