Golden Rule Charities- The Pantry - Flagstaff, Arizona
Free food in Flagstaff provided through community donations, state donations, and federal programs.
Kenneth - Volunteer
It's getting close to my second year volunteering here. There's an old saying to always help those who most need it. For me, I live with my mother who is single. For me, I have a strong sympathy to those single parents with a single child. Because you don't know what they have gone through, you don't know what type of situation they're in. Their mothers might be working full time, their sons or daughters might be, in this case maybe a brother or a sister, the brother might be making the food for the younger brother or younger sister.
Bill - For about 10 years I've been living off grid about 35 miles outside town on a ranch. I work there for my rent. I've got an RV I live in. I haven't been able to find work in town, so I am out there. I work two days a week at the community college and that's where this comes in really handy
I've been coming here about four years. I never, ever wanted to accept assistance, but when you start getting hungry, it's amazing how your attitude changes. These people are lifesavers.
Laurie - I hadn't been here in a little while but I used to come religiously every week to get food because I have a family, I've got three kids at home and we get just about $100 a month in food stamps and it just doesn't supplement much. But we were also homeless for a long time and this was our only source of food. I'm really glad that it's here because it's helped out in the past.
Jessica - We were working at the Grand Canyon and I got really sick because of mold. I have really bad asthma. Within three hours of being in the hospital, they put me in a coma. I woke up two weeks later, I had paralyzed vocal chords and I couldn't move. They paralyzed one of my vocal chords when they were intubating me. My medical leave of absence was over December first but I couldn't go back to work until May, so I lost my job and my housing. He decided to leave his job and get a job here closer to my physical therapy and the hospital. We're kind of like stuck here.
I've been coming to the pantry off and on for about six years. We started off just low income and then we made our life better, we moved and then we moved back when I got sick and we lost our housing and I lost my job.