Midwest Food Bank’s Arizona division is partnering with The Salvation Army in California to gather and distribute donations for victims of the California wildfires.
Arizona community members have donated enough to fill a 53-foot trailer filled with about 1,000 food and supply kits containing water, blankets, clothes and hygiene items.
"It brings me to tears what Arizona is doing for California. I love Arizona for everything they've done," said Scot Rayl, who evacuated from his Paradise, California home to Arizona when the fires started.
Rayl is now helping to gather the donations to be sent to California.
"It feels great to help out when you feel lost and you need to do something and I had to do something," Rayl said.
The first shipment left Arizona Monday headed to California. Midwest Food Bank says they will continue to send shipments once a week as long as donations are coming in.
"There's gonna be over 750 family boxes, close to a 1,000 food boxes that will be going...diapers by the pallet load," said Patrick Hodgkins, the Midwest Food Bank Executive Director. "When we come together as a community we can make an impact and then really it's that economy of scale of all of us doing our little bit that can make a huge difference and it feels awesome."
If you’d like to help, you can drop off your donations at the Midwest Food Bank at 725 E Baseline Road in Gilbert or make a monetary donation online HERE.
