The programs that makeup Neighborhood Family Services provide families with basic needs like food and clothing as well as emotional and spiritual needs. We do this by offering parenting support, counseling services, legal assistance, and other opportunities for families to grow and thrive together.
Food Bank
In June 2021, our Food Bank began opening up campus again to serve congregate meals. The total meals served during 2021 at Kids Club, Monday Nights, and Special Events was 2,698, feeding 1,798 families in all!
2021 saw a major renovation to the Food Bank made possible by a grant received from the Arizona Food Bank Network (AFBN). We remodeled our entire area, adding a new walk-in cooler and freezer, new shelving and storage racks, and platform carts to help us efficiently store and move food.
Our “Build a Turkey Box” volunteer event was a huge success, generating 350 boxes of shelf stable food in addition to the whole frozen turkeys, pumpkin pies, stuffing mix, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, and a variety of other fresh and shelf stable foods we were able to distribute in November thanks to our generous donors!
Parenting Por Vida
Parenting Por Vida supports young families through research-based education, community partnerships, long-term relationships and hands-on activities designed to help parents gain the skills and confidence to nurture their children in healthy ways.
Providing these services virtually in 2021 provided a real challenge. Not only were many of our young families hit with unemployment or reduced hours, many more were limited by an inability to afford internet services and computers, further alienating those we sought to serve. But, thanks to key parent volunteers, we were able to innovate and invite those in need to small at home, outdoor gatherings we called Cafecitos – to not only provide existing services, but to expand them as well. God is good!
Nueva Esperanza
In partnership with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, 493 children crossing the border unaccompanied have been received with arms outstretched with love, met with basic needs of food and clothing, safety, education, housing, mental health, and medical services through our day center, Home Care Services Providers, and community partners as well as Arizona licensed foster homes for short-term care. One seven-year-old we assisted summed up the heart behind Nueva Esperanza perfectly, “We must all respect each other and accept our differences because God loves us all equally.”
7,341
Individuals and families were served through NM Food Bank