The General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) Waurika Sorosis Club is pleased to participate in the GFWC National Day of Service (NDS), spotlighting food insecurity and hunger in the United States. This year’s NDS is scheduled for Saturday, September 28, nationwide. The Sorosis Club participated by making a donation and collecting food items for the Jeffco Helping Hands Food Pantry. Doug Arnold, President, of the JEFFCO Food Pantry Board of Directors attended the Club’s September meeting and accepted the check and canned goods on behalf of the pantry.
“The GFWC National Day of Service is an exciting opportunity for our clubwomen to demonstrate their volunteer know-how,” said Suellen Brazil, International President. “The GFWC tagline is ‘Living the Volunteer Spirit!,’ which is the essence of this national public awareness campaign about hunger and food insecurity. It takes a village of concerned community leaders, public servants, and compassionate neighbors to solve hunger.” According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 34 million people in the U.S. are food insecure, 9 million children are hungry, 53 million people turned to food banks following COVID-19 due to unemployment, and 100 percent of U.S. counties have families suffering from food insecurity. “The Jeffco Helping Hands Food Pantry frequently serves more than 160 households with our monthly food distribution, according to Arnold. “The increasing cost of groceries across the U.S. impacts food pantries, too. Our grant dollars and state donations do not go as far as they did a few years ago. We are very grateful for donations from service clubs, churches and private individuals. These donations make our food go farther and allow us to continue offering a high quality and variety of food items.”
You can support the food pantry by mailing a check to JEFFCO Helping Hands Food Pantry, PO Box 237 Waurika, Ok 73573. The JEFFCO Helping Hands Food Pantry is a 501(c)3 organization and donations are tax deductible. “The GFWC International motto is “Living the Volunteer Spirit” and this is just one project that our local Sorosis Club does to put our motto into action in Waurika,” Ginger Fitzgerald, Club President stated.
“We are pleased to support the Jeffco Helping Hands Food Pantry and to join our more than 60,000 GFWC volunteers across the globe to bring awareness to food insecurity and hunger.” The JEFFCO Helping Hands Food Pantry is also accepting volunteers to help with food sorting, putting together the donation boxes and assisting with food distribution, If you would like to become a volunteer, contact Doug Arnold at (561) 914-1924 and he can tell you more about the volunteer opportunities. “It takes a lot of volunteers to do our job to it’s fullest and we need your help,” Arnold concluded. “Like most volunteer opportunities our helpers tell us they get as much or more out of volunteering than our clients do. I think you will, too.”