HERALD/REVIEW – Peach’s Pantry marks 10 years, donates holiday meals to those in need
Full Story Published in the Herald/Review
November 16, 2023
By Mark Hays
SIERRA VISTA — Thursday morning, Peach’s Pantry performed a special food distribution. Along with regular food donations, Thanksgiving meal items like turkeys and pies where sent to students in need.
Ten years ago, Founder and Executive Director Sarah Pacheco started the nonprofit to provide meals to students who needed food over the weekend. The program had its start at Joyce Clark Middle School, when Pacheco, then employed at the Sierra Vista Unified School District Public Relations Office, took over the mission.
“There was a nurse that had been buying some food for some students on the weekend, and she was going on maternity leave,” President and Supply Specialist Laura Miller said. “So she asked Sarah if she could take over it.”
Pacheco found out that other school nurses in the area were assisting students in similar ways. From there, Peach’s Pantry, dubbed after Pacheco’s nickname, was up and running.
Fast forward to 2023, and Peach’s Pantry, located at 4669 N. Commerce Drive in Sierra Vista, is a hub of activity on Thursday mornings, as volunteers move bags of food into vans, cars and trucks to transport them to local schools. In the 2022-23 school year, the organization donated 15,736 bags of food to 25 schools and nonprofits, clocking over 3,000 hours of volunteer work.
“We have 246 regular family bags going out,” Miller said Thursday morning. “But we also do allergy bags, I have my two nut-free bags, one gluten-free, and then if a family is having to stay in a hotel, we have microwaveable bags.”
For recipients of the food bags, these special options make a huge difference. Gary Frey, the mom of a Berean Academy sixth grader, described her experience with Peach’s Pantry’s allergen-free bags.
“They provide for my daughter, because she’s gluten free,” Frey said. “It’s very expensive to be on a gluten free diet, so everything they give us allows me to buy something else for my daughter. They provide so much, and it makes our lives so much easier.”
Once the food arrives at the schools, coordinators will distribute the bags to children and their families in need. Miller highlighted that the students receiving donations are anonymous to Peach’s Pantry.
“We have a coordinator, at most of the schools it’s the school nurse, and so she finds the families in the school that need the bags,” she said. “We have no idea who the bags go out to.”
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