As part of its new Operation Dough-Nation® program, Paradise Bakery & Café continues a longstanding commitment to the community by supporting Phoenix Rescue Mission through Day-End Dough-Nation, a program that donates high-quality, unsold baked goods to local organizations in need, from all 32 of its Phoenix-area cafés year-round
The Day-End Dough-Nation program is expected to help provide baked goods to help supplement the 5,600 meals served each week at Phoenix Rescue Mission. Overall, the program’s baked goods donations are valued at approximately $1.5 million each year. Recognized for its fresh products, Paradise Bakery’s local cafés will donate hundreds of pounds of wholesome breads, muffins, croissants, and award-winning cookies.
“We are honored to serve those in need the best way we know how – through our baked goods,” said Louie Kizis, Paradise Bakery & Café director of marketing. “We have been donating to local organizations since 1988 and are excited about this new relationship with Phoenix Rescue Mission. Through the Day-End Dough-Nation program our hearts are fulfilled with each day’s delivery of much-needed baked goods.”
“We are grateful to Paradise Bakery’s support and look forward to a long and heartwarming relationship,” said Jack Yearwood, Phoenix Rescue Mission COO. “Over the years, high quality baked goods have been among the most challenging to provide and what we need to supplement the 5,600 meals we serve each week. Thanks to Paradise Bakery’s delivery system, that problem has been solved.”
About Paradise Bakery & Café
Paradise Bakery & Café, a pioneer of the fast-casual, bakery/café segment, was founded in 1976 in Long Beach, California. The company has been headquartered in Scottsdale since 1988. It is renowned for its fresh menu and cookies. Paradise Bakery & Café operates 75 cafés in 10 states, including 35 in Arizona. Outside its home state, Paradise operates stores in California, Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. For more information visit: www.paradisebakery.com.
About Phoenix Rescue Mission
Founded in 1952, Phoenix Rescue Mission provides food, shelter, chapel and other services to the homeless and working poor of metropolitan Phoenix. Hundreds of hot meals are served daily, showers and clean clothing are available, 180 beds provide shelter for men nightly, and clothing and food boxes are given to needy families. Additionally, a 12-month, spiritually-based addiction recovery program is available for up to 20 men at one time. For more information visit: www.phoenixrescuemission.org.
Pack A Sack 4 Kids!
When school’s out for summer, so are school lunches.
Unfortunately, this compounds Arizona’s hunger problem at a time when food donations are incredibly low. In Arizona, one in five children goes to bed hungry, according to the 2009 USDA hunger survey. You can help the Phoenix Rescue Mission as we turn hunger into hope for children this summer by gathering all the items on our flyer and dropping them off at the Family Outreach Center at 3532 W Thomas, STE 9, Phoenix AZ 85019.
We’ll be giving every child attending our Back to School event at the end of the month a “Pack A Sack” to give them a head start on their school lunch kits!
Can You Imagine Living Your Life Without Fear?
“Imagine Your Life Without Fear” is free to Phoenix Rescue Mission’s online family all this month and is just the right size to share. In the book’s forward the author, Max Lucado, writes,
“Fear seems to be in the driver’s seat these days. We are troubled and anxious. Finances are tumbling, rockets are launching, and seemingly solid institutions are teetering. It’s tough to know where to turn, isn’t it? … There is an antidote to our fears – trust. If we trust God more, we can fear less. What a comforting promise.”
Live your life with less fear, request your free copy today by emailing Janie at prm@phoenixrescuemission.org or call 602.346.3335. Please include your name and mailing address when making your request.
Phoenix Rescue Mission’s Volunteer of the Year Shares Her Story of Addiction and Recovery
- Janet Garcia with the Mission’s Nicole Peña
I wasn’t always a do-gooder. In fact, for 18 years I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. In 2005, I experienced a traumatic event, which made me seek out a 12-step meeting, or risk relapsing.
I found a local chapter of Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered 12-step program. While there, I met a woman who volunteered at the Phoenix Rescue Mission, serving meals to the homeless in their soup kitchen. I also discovered that some of the men in my meetings were graduates of the Phoenix Rescue Mission addiction-recovery program. I started volunteering there, too. Working in the kitchen felt like returning home.
I grew up just a few miles from the Phoenix Rescue Mission on Buckeye Road. My parents had moved my family to Phoenix for a new beginning. Two weeks after we left California and landed in Phoenix that new beginning came to an end. My father dropped my five sisters, three brothers and mother off at 20th Avenue and Buckeye Road and left. We stayed in an apartment for a few months until we moved to the Coffelt Housing Project. While living at Coffelt, I was introduced to heroin. I was 17. I continued using the drug for the next 18 years, until 1988.
I started volunteering in 1988 after completing a 40 day in-patient treatment program. After nearly two decades of using drugs and alcohol, I can’t even express the peace volunteering has given me. The very first place I volunteered was a program that targeted women infected or at-risk for HIV. I was meeting with women who were living the same life I had lived. It was through volunteering that I got my first job working in the behavioral health field. Twenty years later, I am still working in behavioral health, though with a different community of people.
In 1993, I started volunteering at an organization that ministered to the poor. At the time, I was going through a divorce. After working with the poor, I decided that fighting for the house and material possessions was just not worth the heartache. I moved in with a friend, owning nothing but a TV and a mattress. By volunteering, I was truly home. I was accepted, and in turn, I was able to love and nurture those coming through the doors until the organization closed in 2004.
Shortly thereafter, I found the Phoenix Rescue Mission. My first shift in the kitchen was like a journey back in time — there were so many “old Janets,” people lost, addicted like I once was — I knew I was in the right place. I still see my old self in many of the faces of the men and women who come to eat a meal or get a food box. I am now delivering food boxes to homebound seniors and I love it.
I’ve gained so much from volunteering, so much more than I could ever express. My journey led me full circle — I am home again.
— Janet Garcia
2009 Volunteer of the Year Phoenix Rescue Mission
Our thanks to Janet for her years of dedicated service and for sharing her powerful story on AzCapitolTimes.com
Tom’s Story
Phoenix Rescue Mission's Jerry Sandvig with Tom Murray
I had the privledge of meeting Tom Murray at our Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon in April. He was our featured speaker and when he took his place behind the podium in his suit and tie, I had no idea how powerful the story he was about to share with us would be. Here in his own words, is Tom’s story of homelessness and hope.
“I lived in Phoenix many years, and for the most part, I lived on the streets in central Phoenix. I had jobs and then I had months of no jobs and homelessness. I used to sleep in the bushes along I-17 near Grant Street in the years before I first went to the Phoenix Rescue Mission.
Those years were mostly awful. When I finally went to the Mission in October 2001, I was seriously ill (I didn’t know it) and in fact, I laid on a piece of cardboard for several days outside the gate of the Mission – I was just too sick and tired to get up. I had what you might call a life changing experience before I went to the Mission.
I had a heart attack and underwent several heart surgeries while I lived at the Mission and I remember Jerry Sandvig coming to lead Bible studies when I was not able to get out of my bed. What a blessing Jerry and everyone at the Mission were to me, and are now to many people.
I am school in Kansas City now, completing my doctorate degree and I will be a Doctor of Chiropractic next year. I plan on returning to Phoenix to help Jerry and everyone else at the Mission.
~Tom Murray”
There are many more homeless men just like Tom. Please visit our website to see how you can help or to find out more about our Addiction Recovery Program.
~Debra Pryor
www.phoenixrescuemission.org
2 Ways to Help Moms and Kids
For volunteers looking to make a difference in the lives of local mothers and their children, the Mission has two volunteer opportunities to share.
1. 25 Volunteers are needed this Wednesday evening to provide child care for mothers attending an inspirational concert by the ACTS choir from California. Volunteers will also serve mothers dessert, coffee and punch.
Where – Murphy/Rotary 100 Education and Health Center, 3140 West Buckeye Road, Phoenix AZ 85009
When – Wednesday, June 30th
Time – 5:00-7:30pm
Who – Families, groups, businesses or organizations – ages 16 or over (No background check is needed).
2. The Murphy/Rotary 100 Education and Health Center is a WIC registration facility. We need volunteers on Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the summer to provide crafts, games, movies, reading time and fun programs to children and their families as they wait for WIC registration. Activities can include mom, helping to provide interactive family time.
This is a great opportunity for your family to work closely with our working-poor families.
Where – Murphy/Rotary 100 Education and Health Center, 3140 W. Buckeye Rd. Phoenix, 85009
When – Beginning immediately Mondays & Thursdays through August 16th
Time – 9:00am-noon & 1:00-4:00pm
Who – Families, groups, businesses or organizations looking to work with children and families (No background check is needed).
If you are interested in participating in either of these events or would like to learn about addtional volunteer opportunities contact me at (602) 272-4663 or email me at mpadron@phoenixrescuemission.org. Thank you and have a blessed week!
~Marlena Padron
Volunteer and Event Coordinator
Phoenix Rescue Mission
6 Ways to Help Send Kids Back to School
Phoenix Rescue Mission is sending over 1,200 kids from Phoenix area Title 1 School Districts back to school with all the gear they’ll need for fall and we need your help.
Children who qualify for our program come from families who can’t afford to provide school lunch for their kids and in many cases are coming to the Mission for food boxes to keep them afloat. Imagine the anxiety these families feel knowing the beginning of a new school year is on the horizon with no money for necesssary school supplies. Every single child needs the chance to thrive in school and you help make that happen this summer.
Here are 6 ways you can help:
1. Stuff a Backpack – Fill a backpack with these basic school supplies and drop off at our Family Outreach Center at 3532 West Thomas, STE 9 in Phoenix.
- crayons
- pencils
- pens
- erasers
- markers
- highlighters
- pencil boxes/pouches
- glue
- folders
- pencil sharpeners
- rulers
- blunt and sharp scissors
- 1” 3-ring binders
- colored pencils
- wide ruled filler paper
- wide ruled spiral notebooks
- composition books
2. Donate a Uniform – White polo shirts and navy bottoms are the uniform of choice for the school districts participating in our program and can be dropped off at the Family Outreach Center.
3. Buy a $15 Payless Shoe Source Gift Card – To buy shoes for little feet and drop off at the Family Outreach Center.
4. Sponsor a Child – $80.00 outfits a child with a filled backpack, uniform and shoes. We do the shopping for you! Make a donation online or send a check or money order payable to Phoenix Rescue Mission, PO Box 6708, Phoenix, AZ 85005-6708 (Be sure to write “Back-To-School” on the memo line).
5. Organize a School Supply Drive – We need any and all of the items listed above and drives are a fun way to get your friends, family and coworkers involved. Contact Marlena to start your drive.
6. Buy in bulk at www.dollardays.com/phoenixrescuemission/wishlist.html –School supplies by the case will be sent directly to the Mission.
Find out more and download printable flyers and checklists on our website.
A Testimony of Hope, Restored
Dennis was just 13 years old when he started experimenting with alcohol and drugs. By the time he was 20 years old, he was hooked on crystal meth. For the next twenty-three years, he never stopped using. Dennis was married at 23 and his wife gave birth to their son a couple years later. While he loved his wife and son, it wasn’t enough to get him to stop his drug use. His wife divorced him when his son was only 18 months old.
For years, Dennis bounced around, doing whatever he had to in order to support his addictions. In 2003, he was arrested for drug smuggling from Mexico and spent a year in jail. After that, things only got worse. His addiciton to meth cost him the trust and respect of his family and friends, he lost any chance of joint custody of his son and finally, lost his job, becoming homeless.
Living in a van, one night he decided to pray. With tears flowing, he prayed asking God to rescue him and put hope back in his life. The next morning when his drug dealer showed up, he asked Dennis to go somewhere with him. Before he knew it, the dealer dropped him off at the Mission and told him to focus on getting better for himself, his son and his family.
It wasn’t long after he entered our recovery program that he realized what was missing from his life was a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The hardest part of the program for Dennis was surrendering. He found that the more he grew in his relationship with God, the easier it became to surrender his past sins and allow his heart to be filled with hope and joy through God’s forgiveness.
Dennis graduated from our Men’s Recovery Program in April and already has a job. When he went back to the last company he had worked for, Quick Pik Allover Towing, to apologize, the owner hired him on the spot. They could see right away that Dennis is a changed man.
Thanks to those that support the Mission, lives are being changed. As Dennis put it, “Thanks to everyone who donates time and money to the Mission. You literally saved my life and the lives of many others. I can’t thank you enough!”
Thanks to You Last Month…
Thanks to your gifts and over 1,600 hours volunteered last month…
· We served 23,024 meals to hungry and hurting people
· We provided over 3,520 safe nights of shelter
· We gave emergency food boxes to 4,295 families in need
· We distributed over 8,000 bottles of water to homeless people on the streets of Phoenix
On behalf of all the men, women and children YOU helped in May, we say THANK YOU!
Visit our website if you would like to learn more about our programs and how you can get involved.
Phoenix Rescue Mission Blog 