It’s never too early to introduce the lessons of generosity and philanthropy. The Esperanza community recently reinforced those values on Cub Scout Pack 278 with its generous outpouring during the pack’s food drive.
Cub Scout Jax Paradise collects a bag of food from Gwen Entsminger.
One Cub, Jax Paradise, collected 80 bags of food – more than 750 pounds worth! And where did all those groceries come from? Esperanza! Jax started with 20 empty bags to fill and delivered 80 bags to the food drive!
The young lads from Pack 278 also learned other lessons – determination and commitment. As some of the Cubs came out of the infection, including Jax who had Covid the prior week, the lads rallied to collect filled bags from community members.
Esperanza’s donations required two vehicles to deliver the food to St. Benedict’s Pantry in Ahwatukee! St. Ben’s Parish officials said it was the largest single delivery it has ever received and stretched their intake area to the limit!
Among Esperanza congregation members who chipped in were our fair-weather visitors, Gwen and Mark Entsminger, who are here about five months a year to escape the Chicago-area winters.
“Gwen packed the bag. The extent of my contribution was responding to a text,” said Mark, chairman of the finance team.
Gwen, happy to scour her pantry to fill the bag, added that there is greater need for food than meets the eye.
“There is a great opportunity at church on Sundays to bring food for the Kyrene Resource Center,” she said.
She added that there also are items that folks in need cannot buy with food stamps, such as diapers, paper products and feminine-hygiene products. Those, too, are in great demand.
Mark is no stranger to providing food, himself. A retired supply-chain manager for international food and beverage corporations, he ran a food-pantry donation program for several years at his church in Illinois.
Alice Schultze and her grandson, Michael, have their food-bag donation ready for pick up.
“There certainly is tremendous need,” Mark said. “Any time the opportunity comes up we’re happy to do it. The bottom line, unfortunately, is there’s a much bigger need than most of us realize.”
In Ahwatukee, with its many affluent red-tile roof neighborhoods, it is difficult to imagine that there might be those just a paycheck from homelessness and in dire need.
“Where we’re from, the county adjacent to Cook County, it’s one of the more affluent areas, like Ahwatukee is in some ways,” Mark said. “Yet it’s very surprising the number of folks who struggle, and the pandemic just exacerbated that. I would wager there’s a much bigger need for food in Ahwatukee than anybody would guess.”
Swooping by to pick up the Entsmingers’ filled bag was the enterprising Cub, Jax.
“The Council has been brainstorming on hunger as an area of focus this year,” Mark said. “The Cub Scout drive was very opportune. I’m looking forward to learning more about how Esperanza is going to engage around hunger. There certainly are a lot of opportunities.”