On land donated by the local high school, CIN purchased and assembled three large mobile storage units for the Monument Valley food bank. Our program partner in Monument Valley organizes the food distribution and serves between 100 and 200 elders each month. This remote community organizes a bi-monthly food bank that serves 135 elders. Program partner Katie Tree, our Southwest Volunteer of the year for 1999, often organizes community volunteers to take food out to the elderly who live in very remote areas around Chilchinbito. Sells, Arizona, on the Tohono O odham Reservation CIN provides most of the food for this program.
Volunteers prepare the food in Sells, then take it out to several very remote community centers.
Carpools bring the elders to these centers, where they enjoy a noontime meal. Hardly anyone has a close neighbor in these communities, so the food program provides time for the elderly to socialize with each other and get a good meal. CIN also provides craft items to the center for elders to work on. This community is nearly unreachable except by four-wheel drive vehicle. CIN has two outstanding program partners in Sweetwater.