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Mission Santa Maria is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, all donations are tax deductible. 

In the past two weeks the outpouring of generosity to help our families with food has been inspiring. We were able to raise over $30,000 in many small and large donations. We are now feeding 350 families in nine towns, which means we are feeding about 1,300 adults and children. We have enough funds to continue to make food purchases the next two weeks.

We delivered most of the food to the families in the past few days and they are extremely grateful. I wish you could meet the people you are helping. They are extremely kind and humble people. Their concern for their families is obvious the first moment you see them. We have met many young mothers with nothing to give their children. One young woman with three small children thanked us as we gave her a large (35 pound) bag of food. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days and I imagine she wasn’t eating to give her children the food they could find. We plan on returning with food every week until our funds last.

We have had to get a bigger truck to bring us to the city to get the quantity of food we are buying. We are very fortunate that someone in the municipal water department is helping us. We take two trips over two days to buy rice, oats, beans, flour, vegetables, oil, pasta, tuna fish, sugar and salt. Some days we can get fresh eggs or fish.

The food, which comes in 100-pound sacks, (and break our backs) is then separated into smaller bags. For example, we bought 38 sacks of rice that are separated into 350 smaller 6, 8, and 10-pound bags. The same is done for flour, beans, pasta, etc.

Then the bags are put into large, black garbage bags that weigh between 25-35 pounds, depending on the number of people in the family.

We use two pickup trucks to deliver the food to the different towns. We then have local contacts who help us identify the families most in need from their towns. It is quite a system and we have about 20 volunteers helping us do all this work.

Thank you. Thank you for helping us and our families in area. I pass on the many “thank you’s” we receive everyday from the people. This obviously would not be possible without your help!