Health and Human Services Commission - Regular Meeting

DELL: The City of Apache Junction Health and Human Services special meeting of 03/10/2005 to order. Roll call.

Chairman Brennan.

Present.

Vice Chairman Danford.

Present.

Commissioner Moeller. Present. Commissioner Smithson. Present. Commissioner Mikeland. Present. Do you have a quorum, your honor?

Perfect.

And I would like to steal the floor for just a minute, if I can. A couple of announcements. You have a lot of papers in front of you today. The very first piece is it should be your scoring sheet. So that you can use after today's meeting when you look through the applications a little bit further.

We received a letter from Begin Again Homes organization regarding forfeiting their funding for the last two quarters of this fiscal year, as well as pulling their application for next fiscal year. So this will be an item on our agenda at our meeting on the March 31. So there will be no discussion on this, but I just wanted you to know that you have a copy of that letter. It was also emailed to all of you as well. Next in your packet is the response from Superstition Food Bank.

Eric is here today with a presentation and can answer your questions, but he did take the time to answer these ahead of time. And then you also have the attachments that he had submitted with his letter of explanation. And I think that's all you have.

All

right. Also, Amy and I, we have flash drives to give to you all at the end of today's meeting. There's a little bit more information on there that was contained in the applications. But it's not necessarily something that we want to just put out on the website or through the registrar. So we will give those to you after you leave today.

Perfect.

Okay.

Okay. Do we have a motion to approve and consent the agenda?

I move that the Health and Human Services Commission accept the consent agenda as presented.

I'll second.

Commissioner Moeller? Yes. Vice Chairman Danford? Yes. Commissioner Smithson? Yes. Chairman Brennan?

Yes. Commissioner Mike Lind? Yes. Motion passes.

All right. Moving on, new business. Interview of applicants for Health and Human Services funding for fiscal year 2026, Apache Junction CDC, Boys and Girls Club, Overflow Mission, and Superstition Food Bank. And we have a partial gathering of the group. But we can get started. So because you've listed CDC first, and that was how we had them arranged, are you all ready?

Good afternoon. I'm Gail Evans, and I'm the vice chair of the CDC. And we have written down the questions from your meeting. And hopefully, I can answer them to your satisfaction. But I know, as sitting up there, as you've had questions, you always think of something else, too. That's Okay. I'll do the best I can. Number one on the list is, will we be doing any fundraising in 2026? We haven't got anything planned. But as things become available and are coming up, we meet once a month.

Our board does on Zoom. And if there's any opportunities in the beginning, we had talked about doing different fundraisers. But there was so many you can only have so many golf tournaments. You know, it's like you're kind of limited. And we're such a unique group to what we do.

And it's not our intention to make a huge presence, because we only help a certain part of the population. So we currently don't have anything planned, but that doesn't mean if an opportunity was presented to us that kind of fit us, we would go ahead and do it. Number two, what is the cost of the cleanup? Well, that's kind of hard to calculate, because some of them we get a 40 yard rollout. Some of them, we just use our own little trailer.

Sometimes we'll take two loads in our own trailer to the dump. So if we have to use a rollout, that's $600 plus or minus dump fees. So we try not to get those involved. I'm sorry, and I skipped part of it. Part of our fundraising, besides Health and Human Commission, is we write letters to the developers.

We ask them for funding all the time. I'm sure they're kind of sick of us, but that's sort of what they do, too. They have to expect it. All of those have also donated door prizes so that when we have our big Make a Difference Day, we have things to hand out to the volunteers. We calculate volunteer costs using the national figure of $19.14 per hour.

So each job would be calculated based on the number of volunteers and hours that they worked. And some of our projects, we have as little as three people. But some of them, we'll have 10 or 11. But then Make a Difference Day, we have 103. So it depends on what code compliance has called us about.

Sometimes it's only weeds. Sometimes it's one of the it's kind of interesting because we get a lot of retired contractors who love to bring extra stuff home with them, because you might need it. And I'm Scottish, and I understand that. However, one particular man, he was 82, 83, had gone through cancer. It took us four forty yard rollouts.

And that was us calling a bicycle man that would come and take because we don't like loading up the dumpsters with usable stuff that if there's a landscaper or somebody, we try to do anything possible to not have the dump fees, and even a lot of scrap metal. We have an individual that will call him. He will not only come out and pick up stuff for the individual, but he will also bring dumpster. Because a lot of people like to sort through it. They're basically hoarders to big stuff.

And yes, there is a value to it. But it's also a blight for the neighborhood. How many projects did the CDC do in 2024? Dave and I were just talking about that. And we thought it was around 18 to 20.

The city always talks about because of how the date comes with the funding. Some are worked. Others, we provide dumpsters, where they have the people that are willing to fill it up and help them. And we just order the dumpster to go out. So that way, we want them to be able to do as much as they possibly can themselves.

And it kind of gives them a little feeling of a little bit more control. Because some of them get a little upset, like we're throwing their stuff out. And that's not our intent. We're just trying to get the code case cleared. Blighted properties just affect our value so much on our properties.

And living next to someone who our criteria for taking a code case is they financially can't pay the fines. So it doesn't pay the city to find them. And it costs the city to send them to court for something they don't have the money to clean it up. They have to be physically, mentally, and financially unable to take care of their own property. We take care of vets.

Anybody that meets our criteria, that's a homeowner. We do not go out on rental properties, because that's the responsibility of the landlord. And the city has to deal with them. We only deal with the homeowners who can't take care of it themselves.

Can I interrupt you just for a second?

Absolutely. Okay, thanks. You're doing

a great job, honest. And I appreciate that you punctuated that. It's a revision of code violations. And clearly, when you have metals and other things around, they create a hazardous environment in which people can be injured. And you also have rodents, which then attract all sorts of serpents and other things. It's a collective issue. But you said something important. You said the person has to be physically, mentally.

Financially.

And financially intact enough. What do you do with people that are demented?

Well, they fit into our I don't like to say the whole spectrum of mental illness. But they're just not capable of doing it themselves.

Certainly. But how do they give you consent? Do you have to get someone who has power of medical attorney?

GREGORY So we always try to find a relative of some kind, someone that looks after them. We haven't had someone yet that was to that point. We've gotten people help. Far as I signed one gentleman up on his VA. He was a paratrooper. And he had a parachute that didn't open and never signed up for his VA benefits. And he was like in his late 60s. So his wife had passed away. He wasn't doing real well. I got Horizon.

I called the crisis team on him. Each one's different. We've had people that we've showed up. The owner has signed the paperwork. And someone that's living with him was, at nine in the morning, very drunk and yelling obscenities at us. And we finally had to leave that property. And he finally said he didn't want our help. I mean, we don't force ourselves. If they don't want the help, we walk away. That's not an issue.

And we tell everybody up front, if you have something that's sitting outside because we don't go in the house. It's just whatever's outside that code compliance has written them for. Get it out of here. Because if we have the football team or one of the church kids groups come to help us, we can't say, no, put that back. So they have to get it out of sight so that there's no misunderstandings of what we're taking.

It takes a very careful interview at the beginning. But code has done a really good job of we only do the cases that fit our criteria. We don't just do any code case because, A, we don't have enough funding to take care of everybody. I wish I could. But everyone's different.

I mean, we've replaced windows for people. And we try to find local people that can donate a window. We've replaced, free of charge to people, handicapped ramps. One individual, he had a big saguaro cactus fall and crush his ramp. We just replaced another ramp for somebody else.

And each one is different. There's just no one size fits all, unfortunately. But the neighbors that have come to us while we're cleaning up are so appreciative and thankful, because they're tired of looking at it. And I get it. I wouldn't want to look at someone that's got 40 tires sitting around their property.

And you think, why? And it's like, there's no real reason other than they might need them someday, maybe. Let me see. Why do we pay for tools when they are donated? Not all of our tools have been donated, like some chainsaws, just odd things that we don't want our volunteers using.

But some of the regular board members that can do it, like I always bring my own sawzall. You can cut a few branches a lot faster with that than you can with a saw saw. And all, like I said before, I'm Scottish. So when we do buy tools, we really search out where we can get the best deal and who will because we are a nonprofit ask them to sell them to us at a reduced rate. Why is the expense of shirts if they are paid for by donation?

Well, shirts were listed as an expense. And there is a thought that we buy those with donations. We don't. We just resupply. We give out a whole lot more large, extra large, triple X, than we do smalls.

So sometimes when we get down on those, just to increase the inventory so that we have enough is why we buy them. And then we also go for the advertising for all of the local businesses for on the back of their shirts to help offset the cost. And why do we have the expenses of a phone, Zoom? We all have our own cell phones. The city's only open four days a week.

And for a long time, their number was the first number to call. But when you're only there four days a week, people will always call the first number. And they get a recording until Monday. And it's like, that just doesn't work. And some of the clients, customers, cases you don't want them having your home phone number. I did that once. And I felt so sorry for this poor man. He had lost his wife. He was lonely. And he thought I was his new best friend.

And nobody needs that. And so we got the absolute cheapest flip phone there is. And in fact, it's plugged in on my desk and the cheapest minutes we could find. So in this case right now, without Fox there, our phone number is the only way to really contact us. Let me see.

Okay. The phone is just for our citizens. We do all of our own. We are a five zero one(three). And we have to file with the Corporation Commission every year. And there's an expense to that. Our Zoom is our board. I mean, we have people that are out in the field working. Sometimes I'm out of town in Prescott. That way we can get enough people in a meeting that can't leave the job site but can listen on their phone to the Zoom meeting.

Where do we get our dollars other than the city? Well, Pinal County, Walmart, Republic Services, any place we have a grant writer on our board. Any place she sees something, we have a very unique nonprofit. There's not a lot of cities that has a group like us willing to go out and pick up trash. That's other people's trash.

So we apply, but we're not successful a lot of times. Just like the city, when they apply for grants, you have your holistic criteria. The city can't get a lot of them because we don't have mass transit. So it's it's that kind of thing. We try.

We don't wanna just rely on the city, but we only clean for the city and for those people who can't do it for themselves. Where do we serve any property within the exterior boundaries of AJ? And includes the county islands because we have a couple of them. But we don't have code cases because code officers don't go to those places anyways. Have one of the ramps that we replaced was in the county Island for somebody.

And they called us directly. And they have to meet our criteria where they can't do it themselves. The one poor man where Saguaro fell on the ramp, he couldn't get in or out of his house. That's serious. So we were happy that we could help him out.

On page six, number five, how many did we serve? Okay. And for Silly Mountain and Make a Difference Day, the number can't really be calculated other than we had 103 volunteers. And this park just serves thousands of residents, we only work with the city on projects that they bring to us for Make a Difference Day. We've already decided that this coming up Make a Difference Day, we're not going to go out to Silly Mountain again.

And we're going to focus again back on to the neighborhoods, which it's amazing how well our neighborhoods are cleaning up since we have the mandatory trash, which I was so lucky to be on council when that was going through. But it has made a huge difference. Where we place the dumpsters within the neighborhoods, a lot of those streets have a lot of renters in them. And so this also gives the rental people an opportunity to throw their stuff into the dumpsters. We have never picked up a dumpster that wasn't completely full.

And there are the 40 yard rollouts. So if they are in the neighborhood, people are bringing the stuff out. We also provide transportation for the hazardous waste. If someone can't you know, there is a lot of elderly people that don't have pickup trucks and don't have the ability to lift things. We will go and free of charge pick up whatever they want the week before so that that week we can go right to the cleanup with it.

The '25, we've worked six individual projects so far. And a couple took more than one day, but not usually. We've looked into expanding what we do besides the trash cleanup as far as we've just got an adopted street, which is baseline between Idaho and Tomahawk. And we're working on supplying we're in the early stage of this, smoke detectors and house numbers. But it's really important, especially for fire and police, to be able to know which house they're supposed to show up to.

Is there anything I didn't answer?

I'm sorry. I should have stopped you when you were talking about it. The program where it sounds like you take a bin somewhere, and then the residents in that street can just throw stuff away. On Make a Difference Day. Oh, just oh, Okay.

Yeah, just on Make a Difference Day. Okay. We have supplied the rollouts for code cases that they say they have their own people. And we just supply the rollout. And we don't set out for volunteers. They have their own people. And they call us whenever

it's full. And for Make a Difference Day, I just knew about Silly Mountain and then the median when that was a project. So do these neighborhoods request for you to come by? Or co compliance is like, hey, could you help out and just say Yeah,

co compliance will say, we've got a neighborhood that's really in need of your help. And actually, I typically drive the neighborhoods too, because I don't want their job at all. But sometimes it looks bad to us, but it looks normal to them. So I'll suggest, well, what about this block and this street? What do you think?

And depending on our funding, we've done four streets and we've done three streets. It just depends. But the things that people keep at their house, it's really kind of fascinating with toilets. One lady, her husband died on her couch. And she got some friends to take it outside on her porch.

But she didn't have any way to get rid of it. So when the dumpster was in her neighborhood, we loaded it up for her. Because we'll go around and ask, do you guys do you have anything? We don't just stand there and wait. Because at each of the dumpsters, we have a captain and then a number of volunteers, depending on what code thinks we'll need for that area.

How long does a dumpster usually stay in that neighborhood?

They usually bring them Friday, and they pick them up Monday.

Okay.

A lot of times, they'll be full. And people will still bring stuff even after we've gone and they've locked them. And I have a 21 foot flatbed trailer. And so we go around to where all of them were. We load up the extra stuff. Some of it we take to the dump. Some of it, like if it's the tires and the stuff they kind of know they're not supposed to dump there, we'll take down to public works. And they let us keep it there then, like the tires, refrigerators, stuff that they know they can't do that. They do. And we're glad to help.

When we first got the organization up and running again, when the economy failed, the AJ CDC kind of just became part of Friends and Main Street, and it just kind of stayed there. So we really tried to come up with something nobody else was taking care of. And in talking to Rudy, it was quite apparent. We have a lot of people that can't afford a landscaper to come out, can't afford the dump fees, can't physically do it. And we thought, well, it sounds like we got a job.

I'm not 100% clear of what the Chamber of Commerce does. But as a 5,013, why do you need to be a part of the chamber? I see that you have dues of $195 That's why I'm asking.

Because of the business connection and our donations for our shirts. And a lot of times, the businesses understand more what we do than the people do, because we're cleaning up around some of them, too. And it's just that business connection because we do try to get money from people other than health and human services. Sandy had the pleasure, if I call it that of riding around with me on Make a Difference So Day last she saw how interesting it can be.

And the dumpsters were full.

They were full to the top.

So not to be contentious, really. I'm just trying to understand. I appreciate that an affiliation with the Chamber of Commerce has some merit. The council has been pretty clear that we have to demonstrate that when we allocate resources that they have a direct impact on the populace at large. And that seems rather indirect.

Well, if we weren't there to clean up, our neighborhoods would look

No, no, hear you. Absolutely. And I'm not trying to besmirch what you do, because I think you guys do a really great job. And it has been an experience for me to see the evolution of even the proposals, because they now more reflect sort of what you'd measure and demonstrate whether or not you have efficacy. And you've done that. And you presented very well today. I appreciate that as Thank you. Any other questions?

If you ever need to talk to the trash lady, just give me a holler. Thank you all.

Thank you very much. Okay. We skip our regular number two because they are no longer in contention. So that leaves, I believe, Boys and Girls Club, correct?

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Nice to see everyone again. Thank you for having us. My name's Maddie RIBERT: I'm the director of grants at Boys and Girls Clubs of the Valley. And this is Liz Byrne, the vice president of Regional Impact, also from Boys and

Girls Clubs of the Valley.

So I have some of the answers to your questions in my presentation. But of course, feel free to jump in if there's anything that I haven't answered, or anything else you're wondering about. On behalf of Boys and Girls Clubs of the Valley, we're here to discuss our request for funding specifically for the Superstition Mountain branch in Apache Junction. We are requesting $35,000 to support salaries for our direct service staff at the Superstition Mountain branch. This represents less than 5% of the branch's total operational budget, which is about $740,000 With every dollar from this request, we'll stay local to serve Apache Junction youth at this club.

Our dedicated trained staff at the heart of our programs provide the support that keeps kids engaged, learning, and safe in your community. They help with schoolwork, lead enrichment activities, mentor youth, and create a structured, positive environment where kids can thrive. We greatly appreciate Apache Junction's past support and the contributions of local organizations. And the yesteryear fundraiser, which is restricted to AJ and covers about a third of our branch's operational budget. The Superstition Mountain Branch of BGCAZ is a vital resource for Apache Junction families, providing safe, structured, and enriching after school care for three fifty local youth ages five to 18.

Many of these youth face economic and social challenges that put them at risk of falling behind in school and lacking access to positive mentorship. Seventy two percent of the youth we serve come from low income households, and 50% live in single parent households, meaning their caregivers often rely on the club for safe, affordable after school care that allows them to work or attend school. Additionally, 13% of members live with a guardian other than a parent, such as a grandparent or a foster care provider. At the club, kids receive academic enrichment, mentorship, and healthy meals in a safe environment designed to help them build the skills, confidence, and resilience needed for future success. Through programs like the Whole Child Approach, athletics, and leadership development, we support not just academics, but also social emotional growth, physical health, and character building.

Last year alone, we served over 32,000 snacks and meals, ensuring that no child went hungry while in our care. Families who needed financial assistance are never turned away. 82 youth at this club received over 13,000 total in scholarship support so they could participate in club programs regardless of their ability to pay. Most importantly, our programs give young people a sense of belonging and purpose. With only twenty four percent of AJ Unified School District third graders proficient in reading and just nineteen percent in math, the need for structured academic support and youth development programs is clear.

We provide a trusted, accessible solution for families, ensuring that children have the guidance, resources, and opportunities needed to thrive, both now and in their futures. So a question that we noticed in your email was, what is ERE? ERE is employee related expenses that cover the cost of having employees beyond just salaries. So this includes their health insurance, workers' compensation, and required taxes. These are necessary to retain our staff and keep them trained and make sure that our youth are in good hands.

AJ's Unified School District graduation rate is eighty three percent as of 2024, in line with state averages. However, our focus is on keeping kids engaged long before high school, ensuring they stay on track academically, socially, and emotionally. Currently, our average daily attendance at the club is about 100 youth as of 07/01/2024. We have 144 kids, ages five to 11, 31 tweens, and 21 teens coming daily. To measure success, we provide long term support for our youth.

Unlike treatment programs that solve a defined problem, we provide a safe, enriching place for kids to grow and explore new opportunities. We don't track before and after grades, but we do measure engagement, participation, and parent feedback, which demonstrates our value. We don't track individual academic growth over time, but national studies show that the club participation leads to higher school attendance and graduation rates. A member that attends a club twice a week for a year is twice as likely to graduate high school. We offer critical youth development programming, teaching leadership, decision making, and academic skills.

Parents report that because of our organization and the AJ Club, they can remain employed or attend college. By providing a safe structured care, we contribute to family economic stability and long term upward mobility. The Superstition Mountain Branch is a lifeline for AJ families. Without trained, dedicated staff, these programs, which include homework help, meals, youth development, and so much more, wouldn't be possible. We understand the commission might be more inclined to fund meals or curriculum. While we welcome that conversation in the future, this funding is critical to keep the skilled staff who make these programs possible. We appreciate your time and your commitment to AJ youth. Liz, if you want to talk a little bit about specifically what goes on daily at the club.

Absolutely. Thank you, Maddie.

Hello, everybody.

My name is Liz, and I'm the vice president of Regional Impact for Boys and Girls Clubs of the Valley, which is just a fancy way of saying I work with some of our clubs a little out of Phoenix proper. So the three clubs that I'm working with directly, I provide support to our club we just opened in Kingman, Arizona. We also have a club in Yuma. And then, obviously, I'm privileged to work with the community of Apache Junction. So I'm just going to talk a little bit about some accomplishments that we've had this year, some programmatic and operational insights.

And then I'm here to answer any questions you might have about the actual operations. A couple of things that you probably already know, but Apache Junction, this community, has been so supportive of this club for years. We've got some local stakeholders and supporters that have put on our yesteryear events who have been a voice for us in the community. And I want to and I know the city's been very supportive as well. So I want to thank you for your contributions already and your support of what we do.

The school district has been fantastic. I don't know if you guys know this, but they bus all the schools that we serve, the AJ Unified School District, they provide the busing. So we are not obligated to go and take our buses out, which leaves our staff in the building to serve the kids directly, which is amazing. And that's kind of unheard of, honestly. We work with them on our food program. So the school district helps us provide those meals and those snacks to make sure none of our club kids go hungry every day. The academic programming that Maddie mentioned is probably one of the most important things that we do. A lot of our club kids are behind in math and literacy, so we provide daily homework help. It's called Power Hours, our national program. But there's always an opportunity and a staff available to help our club kids with their homework every single day.

We also do cool enrichment programs that are very unique to our after school program. So, we have some Apache Junction club members that are involved in the first LEGO League. Don't know if you guys have ever heard about that, but it's a LEGO robotics program. They actually go and compete and they learn how to obviously, it's fun. They get to play with some Legos, but they learn how to actually code. And they compete academically at schools and clubs across the state, which is very cool. And honestly, it's a very unique opportunity. And specifically, our Apache Junction Club not all of our clubs do it. They're really into it, and they're really great at it. There is a huge interest in the arts in our Apache Junction branch, Superstition Mountain.

We have a music program. We have a whole room dedicated just to music instruments, performing arts. They do regular talent shows. I've been there for some of them. They're super fun. And the kids love it. They love performing. We have character and citizenship programming. We had a local senior in high school from Apache Junction High that competed in our Youth of the Year program, which is basically it's a public speaking program where he wrote a speech about what the club means to him. And he learned how to do a formal interview.

And he had to write a resume and write some essays. And it's a great character building program. And then, finally, the Whole Child Approach is the last program I really want to give just kind of a high level insight to. So, what that is, that's a program unique to Boys and Girls Club in partnership with Taro's Health. So, we have a behavioral health technician that is actually a member of our staffing team.

They are it is through grant funding that supports it directly through Taros. But it's a very unique and very important service that we provide. We have somebody on staff that are the rest of our team are not behavioral health technicians, they are not educated or have the certifications to actually provide true trauma informed care. You know, these people know what they're doing when it comes to crisis. Some of our kids are going through crisis, they can help them.

They provide training to our staffing on how to de escalate behaviors, how to help our club members find that resiliency that Maddie talked about, and really regulate their own emotions. Our club kids and our kids across the nation, they went through the pandemic. And it has made a very significant impact on how they feel about themselves, how they feel about their own security in academics. That is, in my opinion, why we're having such a big issue with math and literacy. And so these wellness coaches are on team to help them with those stress levels that have absolutely raised.

So that's just a snapshot of some of the programs that we offer. Obviously, you have our application, which kind of goes more in-depth. But I just wanted to thank you for your consideration and offer any answers to any questions you might have about the day to day, what actually happens in the club. So thank you.

You note that there are 21 youth that are in their teens. That's a broad spectrum of thirteen to eighteen. How many are in the sixteen to eighteen age?

I don't have that number off the top of my

So in numbers, we have the division between tweens and teens. Yes. So tweens, we consider that's like our middle school. So that's sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So of the actual teens, what's the number we have?

We have 21.

JEANNE 21 full that's high school age. That's fourteen-eighteen.

Okay, fourteen-eighteen. But I mean, there was a discussion a couple of years ago about graduation rates. And what was revealed is that you don't have many people graduating. In fact, that year, they only had two. And last year, I don't believe you had any, correct?

So this year, we currently have, I'm going say, four or five juniors and seniors attending regularly. And I know that all the seniors are on track to graduate this year. I think there's three. So just to be very transparent, it's pretty typical in boys and girls clubs. People sometimes don't understand that we serve teens in general. They think it's just for youth, right? So we do serve five to 18. Typically, the teen populations in clubs are smaller. It is something we're working on growing specifically in this community in partnership with Apache Junction Unified School District. But the juniors and senior population are small. But I don't know if any of them not on track to graduate, of those who are attending.

So previously, what you noted was that the goal was to have some sort of goal for after high school, whether it be military, community college, a job, or what have you. How successful has that been?

I mean, it's been successful. I mean, it's I can speak kind of more organizationally. So we a lot of different types of programs. We actually offer a program called AZ Youth Force That is a workforce development program specific to juniors and seniors that age demographic that you're talking about. And that's open to any teens in any club and in any community.

So of those club members that are a part of that program, I mean, basically all of them are having they have a job or an internship right out of high school. And when it comes to our kind of our bread and butter, which is what you're talking about, which is our kids that are in our clubs every single day, those programs I'm talking about, like that Youth of the Year program. We have a program called Keystone, which is a community service based leadership program. We do have staff that are dedicated to working directly with the teens. Those are the ones that are having the more hands on approach.

And the way that we can typically so we have a survey called the National Youth Outcomes Initiative, where we actually survey our teens. And it's we test more on how they feel about graduation, more so than tracking where they go afterwards, which would be a great opportunity of growth for us.

Okay. And lastly, by happenstance, the other day I was able to see a TED Talk that was from 2016. It was, of all people, J. D. Vance.

And JD Vance talked about his upbringing and how he had really been an individual that rather uniquely escaped from what it was that he was experiencing. In previous iterations of your application, you had ACEs, adverse childhood experiences. I think that that TED talk really does look at that. So I'm recommending that you take a look at it, because I'm sure that there are lots lots of individuals here that have many of those. And he makes some very interesting points.

I was impressed with what he deduced as his success. And one of the primary things to sort of be the surprise killer is that he talks about social currency. He makes clear that had it not been for various individuals in his life his grandparents, various teachers, professors, etcetera, he might not have had the success that he had. And so I think that those are things to explore. And quite lastly, I sort of perseverated on this.

I apologize in some ways. But I really have learned a great deal about EVIT in my past iterations as medical director. And I was impressed with that program. But I don't hear that you collaborate a lot with them. Is that just because we haven't asked? Or is that there?

I think in years past, have. I don't know that there's an active collaboration right now. Know that so I'm just so you know. I've been with the Boys and Girls Club movement for twenty five years. I'm new to the Valley. So I've been in this position about six months. And from what I understand is I think that some of the events have closed down, and maybe there's just some changes. So I know historically and correct me if I'm wrong. And so I believe we have, and we just haven't revisited it. But I agree with you. They're a great program. They do great things for workforce development. And it's a very unique tech opportunity for teens of all kinds of, actually, trades.

Okay, thanks.

Mine, I also had the question about the EVIP, but then also possibly and it might be a redundancy because you're also right there by the high school in that plaza. But it's like, oh, do you have a partnership with CAC to help the kids? Or maybe AJPD or Superstition Fire Medical for their cadet program. I know that's a big thing. I didn't know if that was in the realm of stuff

that you do. We would love to.

We do have a great relationship with the AJ Fire Department and Police Department. The AJ Fire Department actually delivered Santa Claus to our holiday party this year. It was so fun in a fire truck. But as far as the cadet program, we haven't gone down that road. And I think that's a great idea. That would be a way one thing that I'm trying to work on is building our teen population. And offering something like that in partnership with a local community stakeholder would be a great no brainer to kind of bring some of the club kids in. But also, expose them. Maybe have them come in and speak to our teams, and just explain that there's opportunity out there. So not that I know of for that particular program, but I think it's a great idea.

No,

no questions.

Sorry.

Just one second. Okay. I just got to

get through those first initial tears.

Okay. I'm good. But I really appreciate what you guys do.

I didn't expect to cry. But it is tough working with kids and trying to get them on

the right track and everything else, especially making I love to hear that you're making those connections with the high school and can reach out with EVIT in different things. And when you mentioned CAC, you're referring to the community college? Yes. Oh, yes.

Central Arizona College.

Yeah. And with their new I mean, they've been revamping and new programs going in. And I just think there's all sorts of opportunities. And even though the numbers seem small that they're dealing with, the fact that you have teenagers there because I've been teaching for twenty seven years, high school and junior high. So it is tough to get them on track and try

and

replace some of the missing components in their life. So keep it up. You're doing good.

Thank you so much for those We kind really appreciate you.

I apologize. Earlier, I thought you said that the request for the $35,000 was going to go towards salaries?

Yes. So the request is for salaries. Because without our staff there, there's no one to help with our kids. Need our staff, they're great. And a lot of the times, when you talk to a kid who's graduated high school, they're ten years down the line, you say, oh, like, what was your experience like at Boys and Girls Club? They don't say a specific program. They say, oh, I remember so and so. I remember my branch director, my YDS, or something. And we know that our staff are so impactful and so important to these kids that we believe that our staff are a major resource. And we need to fund them.

Now, is this for retainment or to try to recruit more staff?

Kind of goes hand in hand, where we want to keep the staff that we have, because they're trained. They're great. Angie, who she was here last year. She's the branch director. She's a superstar. We love her. The families love her. The kids love her. So we don't want Angie to go anywhere. And we want people to learn from Angie. And we want our current YDSs, our youth development staff, learn from a specialist to learn from her. But yeah, it's also a recruitment effort to make sure that we're paying our competitive salaries and making sure that we're reaching out to the right people and we're attracting the right kinds of people when we have openings at the club.

Do you have to hire more in the summer? More staff?

Yes. Because we're open all day. So in the summer,

we're open 7AM to 6PM versus just the after school hours. So just the volume of hours. But in addition, you see more club kids in the summer, too.

Okay.

Any further questions? Thank you so much.

Well, thank you. Well,

Eric, by default.

I was just like, look who's out there.

I will just add one thing before Eric starts. Overflow Missions did contact us that they were not going to be able to be here today.

And

we offered the same setup if they wanted to call in, and they were not able to do that today at all.

Okay. Good to know. We've had that happen last year. Right. Okay, Eric.

So I don't think it's me. Good afternoon, Chairman Doctor. Brennan, Vice Chair Danford and Commission. My name is Eric Arriola and I'm the executive director for the Superstition Community Food Bank. The food bank has been a part of the Apache Junction community since 1981, when then the Apache Junction city manager identified a need to assist individuals and families facing food insecurity.

The food bank was born. And we started by helping half a dozen people. And last year, we helped 44,300 people. So it has definitely grown. Our need has not diminished. Our need has continued to increase year after year. The four programs that we offer that help the community are emergency food programs. That is offered four days a week Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from two p. M. To four p.

M. And that's just like it sounds emergency food your family needs emergency food you go to the food bank and we give you emergency food The second program we offer is holiday meal boxes. This is part of the integrity part of food banking where we try to bring some of that, I guess normalcy to people's lives the holidays are already hard if you are down and out but they are even harder if you can't even put the turkey on your table for Thanksgiving or the ham on your table for Christmas or Easter. And we actually started something new when I took over the food bank where we're doing a fourth of July box that includes hot dogs, hot dog buns. I know Doctor.

Brennan it's not that nutritional but once again it's that feel good normal you know being normal having the hot dog to grill having the two liter of root beer soda to celebrate the fourth of July with. And then we also offer the commodity supplemental food program, that's CSFP, for our seniors 60 years and older. When I took over the food bank three years ago, we only were able to do 70 seniors. Since me taking over, we have expanded that program to 140 seniors. And the way we do that is by keeping a healthy wait list and delivering a 140 boxes every time we go to distribute.

If we only distribute a 130 then where we get the boxes which is the United USDA They realize that we're not giving them all out, so they will diminish the number. And so we have to be 100%. We have to have a wait list. And they continue to open up more spots for us by being on top of things. Finally, the last program that we just added to our arsenal last year is the student backpack food program.

We realized with the help of the Apache Junction Unified School District that students were going over the weekend without food. And so we rolled out the program at Four Peaks Elementary. And then this year, we rolled it out at Desert Vista Elementary. And we grew the program from 60 to two fifty students that are needing these resources every weekend. And so we would love to roll it out to Peralta Trail and then to Avalon Elementary here in the heart of AG as well.

But currently, we don't have the funding to do so. Those are our four programs. I want to thank you for the $56,000 you granted us last asking for $75,000 this year to help maintain our current programming and to increase our distribution and outreach. If we were to get the $75,000 that would allow us to increase the student backpack program to those two elementary schools that I spoke of, Peralta Trail and Avalon. It could be that there's only 10 students at those schools or it could be another two fifty students.

We don't know. It's a roll of the dice. But currently the backpack food program costs us about $20,000 to operate and as you can see to roll out another two schools would just double that cost the programs that would be utilizing the funds are emergency food program, the holiday food program, and the student backpack program. I know in your guys' video that I watched from your last meeting, there was a lot of talk about this senior program and why people are on a wait list and how they how you guys could help with that unfortunately I don't have control over adding people to that list that list is given to us so I don't ask for money for that program I ask you guys for money for the three other programs that I can control I rest assured we are always looking to to add more to that program but I cannot add more spots. So when I say add more, I would love to add more fresh fruits and fresh vegetables and I am currently going after other grants to allow me to do that.

It's just not what I'm asking you guys for money for with all due respect if that makes sense couple of questions that came up from your guys' last meeting and I will do my best to answer those there are non residents that come to the Superstition Community Food Bank about 40% of our clientele is non Apache Junction resident I currently do not get any funding from any other municipalities. That is something I am working on. Unfortunately, the City Of Mesa's grant program is out about a year and a half to two years. So in October, they will start giving money for 2627. That's how far in advance they are.

And so when I met with council member Spillsbury, they are very open to giving us money. You just have to you know meet the grant process and it's very much like this they're just farther ahead than AJ is you guys are a year ahead they're further out than that and it's the same case with Queen Creek That is the third largest municipality that takes advantage of the food bank. And so I am looking at what they offer. They're a little smaller as far as what they offer. So there isn't a grand process available.

However, their council member that came to our open house is also willing to look at what they can do for us based off of the percentage of usage at the food bank. I don't believe I'm speaking out of turn but I don't think that City of AJ gives money to any other food bank outside of here and there are residents that do go to food banks in Mesa or food banks in Queen Creek or pantries in those areas just because that might be where they're working and so they may not have the time to get back to the superstition community food banks so they go to the pantry that's nearest to where they work and so there is kind of that ebb and flow that connectivity between all the food banks where they are going to a different food bank but they're not getting city money like we are that makes sense I know another question was the hours of operation we did use to we did used to be open set Wednesdays and Saturdays the problem is is we were not picking up enough food on those days from the few food rescue program to make it worth our while so we were paying for overhead we're paying payroll, and at the end of the day, we didn't have the food that we had the rest of the days from our grocery rescue program.

And that program is where we go out every morning to grocery stores and we pick up everything that's going to expire. And so we bring that back to the food bank, our volunteers sort through it and then we give that out that very same afternoon. So when we were doing Monday through Saturday, the overhead, the expense was high and the yield was very little. So we stopped, you know, distributing on Wednesdays and Saturdays. And as a result, we have more on Monday and we have more on Thursday and so it kind of balances out the rest of the week as far as the food we give out.

Another question that was asked was the money that we get from our mothership basically, Feeding America, United Food Bank, all the food banks that are above us? And the answer is zero. So we don't get any money from those partnerships. What we do get is pass through. So the food that the USDA purchases will pass through those entities and make its way down to us and that's how these CSFP the senior program is done that food is purchased at the high level of government and then just passed through to us and so we do reap those benefits but we do not get any financial contributions from those other entities our contributions are made up largely by me pounding the pavement, my volunteers pounding the pavement like the CDC if we see a fundraising opportunity that somebody presents to us we will vote on it and say yeah let's do it let's let's go to such and such and see if we can make a go at it and so that's organizations churches 55 plus communities schools those private donors all of those are who make up the majority of our budget really you guys give me like 2% of our budget and Pinal County gave me $7,000 last year which is great I'd rather have 7,000 than nothing.

So what else? I don't So

Eric you said that you served 44,300 individuals. Were those unique individuals or were they repetitive individuals?

So there is well, 44 is my overall serving. For AJ Proper, it was 27,000. That's who we served from AJ Proper. And there could be overlap. It could be repeat. It could be one time users. But there could be overlap, yes.

Because when you said 40% were from outside, that's really 17,720.

JACK Correct.

JACK Okay. All right.

JACK Correct.

JACK The other thing is you listed that in a family of four. You provide a box every two weeks that's about 100 pounds of food. But the implication was initially that it's about 25 pounds per person. And that fits for four. But what about six? Because I'm sure you deal with families that are six or larger.

So it's about 30 pounds of food per person. So it's a little over 100 pounds. If it is a family of six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 is the most families we've seen. And that is grandparents, parents, and children all living under one roof. They're going to get about two to three grocery carts worth of food.

And they get EFBs, which are emergency food bags. Those are a pass through from USDA. So those are given to us every month. They have staples in them rice, tuna, peanut butter, pasta, pasta sauce. Some months they're amazing other months I don't know that I would eat it and I eat everything but those come from the USDA and we get those in abundance and so depending on the size of the family they will get different amounts of bags if it's a family of one through four they get one commodity bag five three they get two commodity bags nine plus they get three We do the same with our meat.

If they're a smaller family they're gonna get smaller bunch of meat. If they're a larger family they're gonna get bigger cuts. They're gonna get a lot more meat because we can do it that way. The dry goods, I mean that's kind of up in the air. We give a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit away because when we get it it's already on its last leg so we get rid of it the very same day that goes out that same day so the families that are bigger are going to get more but we're still pretty close to that twenty five thirty pounds per person So you can imagine grocery carts for a family of eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen going out the door.

Sometimes I look at it and I was like, woah, many are in that family? And they're like, 11. All right, push it out but yeah that I mean we're making sure that if we're limiting them to two visits a month that we're making sure that they have enough for the week or two weeks between and that just because they're only coming to us twice a month that doesn't mean they can't go to other food banks. We are all linked together with a system called link to feed that is through the Arizona Department of Economic Security and every time they go to a different food pantry a visit is logged. When we see that they've been somewhere within seventy two hours we tell them you have to wait unfortunately until Thursday or Friday or Monday just depending on when that seventy two hours ends.

So it's not uncommon for somebody to come to us the first week, go someplace else the second week come back to us the third week and then go someplace else the fourth week we've always said that we wanted to be a supplemental program to people's pantries and refrigerators we don't want to be the end all giving them all their food. So they can go other places. Usually, they know how much they're getting from us, and they like the variety. And so they just come to us.

And just to have you speculate a little bit, you talked about the FDA and their concerns about government programs and what they're going to be able to provide in the coming future. What have you been told about your supply from FDA or whomever?

So contracts are done a year in advance. So we know that for the next nine months, there's probably not going to be a lot of changes. What's concerning is what happens after that nine months. Because whereas Congress would give so much funding to different areas, that's all being put under a microscope right now. And so we don't know how much funding is going to be given and how many you know contracts are going to go out what's cool about what the USDA does for food banking is they only buy from American producers that can it, bag it here in The US and so none of the stuff that is given to food banks is bought from overseas or Mexico or across the border.

It's all American farmers, American produced, American packaged. And that is, I don't know how long that's been a tradition, but that is the way it works. So everything that is given to us from USDA all the way down is all homegrown. So pretty cool program. So I don't know how much they'll cut if any but right now we have been told to sit tight, don't fret too much but I'm sure we got conferences coming up in August and we'll learn more by then But for now, everything is steady as she goes. Perfect. Thank you. How

is that return to the backpacks coming for you? I know that that was like a concern, because you know kids are kids, and they're just like, cool, keep this pack. Right. Are getting them back? We're getting them back.

We initially started with 500 for four peaks last year when we launched the program. And I'm about to start reordering for four peaks. So not too bad. The problem with them is, you know, it's a five year old that drags And it so now it's got a hole or the string is ripped out of the vac vac. And so we throw them away whenever they've worn their time. So that's the only issue with it.

Now, you would like to expand to the other schools because it has been expressed that there is a need possibly. You said it could be from 10 to

100. So it's been we know that Peralta Trail has written me and asked if they could be part of the program. Avalon has not, but that's because they're not part of the school district. But I know that where they're located I know that it's a challenging neighborhood around there and I'm sure that some of the students would benefit from having food over the weekend

and I forget are those more meals like they could like peanut butter jelly like they could do or like legit like family meals?

It's for them. Okay. So there is a there's powdered milk with water bottles so they can shake it up and make it themselves. There's cereal so that they can have cereal each morning. There's either a tuna fish or chicken salad lunch. There is a spaghettio lunch. There is like a granola bar. Sometimes we have like bags of chips we can throw in. Sometimes we have fruit by the fruit roll ups that we could throw in. There is always a vegetable and a fruit in there and applesauce that is always in there. So they have a pretty good variety of stuff.

I know that you said that this is out of your control, it's still going to bug me. Need to know. So when people on the 60 community, when they're on that wait list, are they cycled through? Or once they're on the wait list because you have your regulars, they have to be there until the powers that be say that you could have more

people. So if, say, you're on the list, and you're now on the list. You're not on the wait list. You're on the list. If you miss two months in a row, you get taken off the list. So now you're off the list. Now Commissioner Smithson from the wait list gets put on the list. We do have clients that if they move in with their kids or if they get married, now they no longer want to be on the list. So we take them off. Or if they pass away, then they're removed from the list as well, which opens up room for people to be on the list. Now when they're on the wait list, they can still come to the food bank they're just not getting the senior box.

Oh okay I thought it was one or the other.

No they can still come to the food bank Monday Tuesday Thursday or Friday and still get normal distribution emergency food they're just not getting that senior box and that senior box is geared towards a senior diet high fiber high protein beans rice juice prune juice I mean it has all the stuff that my grandparents loved in that box right and so so they love that box that box actually allows them a third visit if you will to the food bank because they could still come to other times and then they get their senior box so that's that's the difference it's just a program geared specifically towards seniors and husbands and wives if they live in the same house they can still each independently of each other get a box so it's not even per household it's per individual for that program. Eric does the senior boss come once a month or? Once a month the third Thursday of every month we're out there and we love those seniors.

So yeah. So because seniors have a higher possibility of becoming ill and hospitalized, that might lend to their not making two months' worth of meetings. How can they expedite their reentry on to the list as a recipient?

So if they call us or we call them we actually call them to remind them hey the senior day is coming up on Thursday and this is usually the Tuesday before if we know that they're not gonna make it we'll put a note on the account in that way when it comes time for them to fall off the list we won't push them off the list we know that they're in the hospital or or some circumstance they're all pretty good of calling us and saying we're not gonna make it this month can you give my box to somebody that can use it and so we love that because then we call somebody on the waiting list we say we have an extra box can you come in and pick it up you're not on this list but we had an extra box and we give it to them that's part of us staying at that 100% distribution right and then when they look at it they're like oh superstition food bank has been a 100% for five months let's give them another 10 or 20 slots so like I said we we've jumped up from I think was 74 when I first started and now we're at a 140 so we've doubled the program in the last couple years just by being a 100% so I hear what you guys are saying we don't want those seniors to grow hungry but they're usually only on the list for about four four months and then they get on the list list so it's it's constantly turning.

Perfect.

Now I know that it's only March but have you seen an influx of needs for just regular food emergency food boxes?

We have since the new administration took August in or took took office in January, we've seen about a 500 person increase. And I think it's just uncertainty. Right? Nobody knows what's going on. Yeah. All the tariffs, all the not tariffs, all the inflation, all the non inflation recession is coming. So there's a lot of uncertainty I'm hoping that in the next few weeks it'll mellow out and then people will know what's going on and the need will go down certainly it could stay this way through the end of the year We just don't know. But we have seen an increase since the January.

A quick question. Back to the student backpacks. So if you were able to service Peralta Trail and Avalon at the level that you were serving the other schools, what do you think that added cost would be?

It would be another $20.

Okay. I just want to confirm that. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah there's there's ways to cut corners if you buy more bulk the problem is is our warehouses I mean you guys have seen it our warehouses our warehouse there's we're not squeezing anything more in there and so whereas I could probably get a better discount if I bought more in bulk I just have no place to store it

okay

all right thank you

guys thank you okay Moving on. Staff liaison report.

No report, your honor.

Okay. Good. The next meeting date for the notification we have is the thirty first of the month, and it returns to its normal time, the witching hour of 05:00.

Correct.

Okay. In light of that, are there any other announcements that anyone has? Any activities that people want to make the community aware of? All right. So with that in mind, I adjourn this meeting at 04:25PM on '3