The Verde Valley Food Share Project will be setting up a collection site in the Camp Verde area and is looking for volunteers. Project administrators Nicole Davis and Chelee Skinner held an information session on how to get involved with the project on July 7 at the Camp Verde Community Library.
VVFSP was launched in 2013 in the Village of Oak Creek and later opened collection sites in Sedona and Cottonwood. It is part of the Neighborhood Food Project, a national organization. The Camp Verde collection site will be located in the library parking lot.
The program starts with donors and neighborhood coordinators. Donors receive a green bag to fill with nonperishable food items during a two-month period. Neighborhood coordinators then collect these bags and distribute them to local food pantries.
VVFSP currently has over 60 neighborhood coordinators collecting food from nearly 1,000 households, which adds up to between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds of food every two months.
The project’s website states that about 40 million Americans, or 1 in 8, receive food aid, and 16% of households are considered food insecure due to poverty.
The food collected goes to nearby food pantries, keeping resources local. VVFSP of Camp Verde will start out by supplying the local Bread of Life organization.
Davis said the project is financially supported by Manzanita Outreach, a food share nonprofit, and would not exist without its involvement.
The new Camp Verde chapter is looking for both food donors and neighborhood coordinators, and will eventually need volunteers to help at the collection site. Both administrators pointed out that the time commitment is about an hour and a half every two months, and that they both have full-time jobs in addition to their involvement with VVFSP.
Collection days will be the second Saturday of every even-numbered month, beginning with Saturday, August 12. Davis and Skinner recommended purchasing extra items during routine shopping, then putting those items in the collection bag.
“It’s simple, gratifying, fun and enriching for your community,” Davis said. “It’s really gratifying for everyone who participates.”
They confirmed they will be running the collection site if they can get even one person to participate. Davis and Skinner asked attendees to tell their friends, family and coworkers about the new project.
When library manager Nicole Metz-Andrews toured Manzanita Outreach and expressed interest as to how the library could assist them, Ben Burke, executive director of Manzanita Outreach, mentioned VVFSP.
“There are hungry people everywhere,” Metz-Andrews said. “I think it’s important to know that those people live in our communities and we should be helping them as much as we can.”
Metz-Andrews said that volunteers from the two largest food pantries in Camp Verde had been traveling to Cottonwood to get food to supplement their own supplies, showing the need for a donation point in town.
“I wanted to connect as many people as possible and let them know that this is happening,” Metz-Andrews said. “It’s been established, it’s working in other communities and I know that we can make it work here.”
Interested residents can sign up at verdevalleyfoodproject.org or contact Davis at (928) 301-2814.
