Dennis White introduced his long-time friend, Bobby, telling us that he was the first person to start the community Thanksgiving Dinner in Cambria. He said that his job description is compassion.
Bob started off by telling us that he moved to Cambria in 1974 when Cambria was made up of ranchers, farmers, hippies and retirees. He recently started the Estero Bay Kindness Coalition after discovering that, in the Estero Bay area a large percentage of children are beneath the poverty level. These children receive free or reduced meals at their schools. For the most part, the school cafeteria is their primary source of nutrition all week. Unfortunately, many children go an entire weekend with little or no food with any nutrition.
In 2017, the group committed to filling 12 backpacks each week for students who were otherwise not going to be eating on the weekends. By the end of the school year, they were filling 40 backpacks each week. Each backpack includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with snacks, juice and milk, to help bridge the
gap over the weekend. This year, they have teamed up with the Cambria Connection to provide similar backpacks to students at Cambria Grammar School where 70% of the children are below the poverty level! And they are hoping to start a program where these same children can receive the backpacks during the summer when they are not getting lunch at school. They are calling this program Got Your Back.
Bob is asking for help to fight childhood hunger. Donations can be made to Cambria Connection (put “Got Your Back” on your check). To sponsor a child for a week, it is $12; for 1 month, $48; 1 semester, $228 and, for an entire school year, $456. They also accept donations of food including healthy cereal, evaporated milk, canned fruit, dry fruit, canned vegetables, canned chicken, tuna, beef, peanut butter, jelly, instant rice and boxed juice.
Thank you Bob for such an informative presentation.