Our goal was to emotionally connect with an audience by providing examples of how the Food Bank impacts the lives of its clients. The three interviews in the video were captivating and helped our client exceed their fundraising expectations.
We are the Boy Scouts. We are the National Association of Letter Carriers. We are dedicated volunteers. We are the South Plains Food Bank, a farm team. I'm a fifth grader.
We helped to build a better community. We do this because we think we can make a difference. And the reason we do this is because we believe in helping others. We are planting seeds for a better future. We believe in feeding the hungry.
I believe that everyone should have a full tummy. Together we can in Hungary. I'm Susan Raines, Lizzie. I'm the child nutrition programs director of the cell phone spoofing, being able to provide meals to children that might not otherwise have meals is very rewarding.
As a child, I experienced hunger. I know what it's like. I know what it feels like. It's very detrimental to a child's well-being. When I was twelve, my mother and I fell upon hard times. We're living in a housing project in Houston.
And one day in a time of great need, someone anonymously left a box of food on our front doorstep. At the time, that was extremely satisfying. It wasn't much longer after that box of showed up on our doorstep that I was actually taken away from my mom and put in foster care. Thankfully, I had a guardian angel, a teacher of one. That. Helps me remain strong and offered her home. It was a couple of years after that.
That I actually got to see my mom again. And that's the picture that you see. We never got to have a normal mother daughter relationship again. Because 29 years ago, she passed away. Yes, she skipped meals when they were together.
And yes, she did not have food. When we were apart. And that led to malnutrition. And ultimately, her demise. Being a part of the food bank. Although emotionally difficult. It allows me to share her legacy. My name is Charles Kanti, and I receive food from the south, my food, my.
I was raised and born here. My mother had 13 kids. I am the 10th child, so I have three kids. I raised them on my own and. It was very hard because being a single parent, one thing is having the strength to get up each day, to go, to work, to provide for them.
So at the time, I didn't know about the food bank and I wish I had them for my kids because sometimes I would without food. Sometimes my kids would too might have to eat once a day, and the best meal would be at school in 1987.
I hurt myself at my job and it turned out to be. It took about two to three years before I found out that I had lupus. And during that course of time, it was hard for me to work hard for me to cook for my own kids.
And I put a lot on my oldest son and it affected him a lot. But what's affected me mostly was mainly it was the fact that when the doctor told me, he just said, I'm sorry you have lupus and this will kill you.
And the only thing that came to me was my three kids. Who's going to take care of my three kids? It's a hard situation, especially being on 30 medications at a time and no one in trying to figure out, do I take away the medication?
Do I not eat today so that they can eat? My most important thing is that they have not me. The food bank have really given me enough to where I can put a meal on my table. I can have a meal in my cabinet.
I can have a meal in my refrigerator. I don't have to worry about food anymore. I don't have to take away from the things I really need, like my medicines, making sure I have a roof over my head, my utilities.
So South Plains Food Bank have given me strength and understanding and. That I can get help from them, and they are here for me and everyone. My title here at Cavazos Middle School is home liaison. I serve as a middleman between the home and the school.
It wasn't like when I just started that I knew I was new to the area, took of us as middle school into the type of demographics as well. It started off with that. The school offered counselors rather would offer crackers to kiddos in the event that they were late to school and missed breakfast.
Or they would actually come to the office and say, You know, we didn't. We don't have anything to eat and have breakfast. It became a little more often and often, and it was just crackers and crackers and crackers are great.
But, you know, and then I'm like, OK, well, what if we offer them, Oh, I don't know, gummy bears, maybe a juice to go with a crackers or a bottle of water? Then it went from that to more.
It was more kids were requesting a cracker and a bottle of water. I remember asking the principal if maybe we could supply by. More crackers and more water, and maybe just hand them out to the kiddos. I remember, he said, telling me, You know what?
You can do whatever you want. But we have no funds. And my OK, so I went home, thought about it, thought about it, prayed about it. So I started with that. I asked him, what if I asked for donation?
He goes again. Do whatever you want. I even took a second job to try to buy stuff on my own, you know, for these kiddos. So that's how it started. But then. It was like, OK, well, I have let's say I have 100 hackers, but I have 600 700 yet, and oh my gosh, I did get asked one time by the principal. For this, this is a never ending problem. Are you sure you want to continue? For yeah. Somebody has to do it. He's like, You know that you're not going to fix it. No, but we can start somewhere.