Beans For Everyone

It was quite a sight -over twenty pallets of pinto and red kidney beans in neat rows, delivered and unloaded from an Orphan Grain Train eighteen-wheeler.

This generous donation of beans, a necessary food staple especially necessary in low income homes, made the long trip across the U.S. to bless our El Paso community.

With YLM’s weekly food distribution, over 1,000 bags of food are given out monthly, impacting just as many homes. These food baskets are a great form of assistance to families with minimal resources, containing different food stuffs, but most importantly, those necessary staples that can be stretched throughout the month, like rice and beans.

The impact these food baskets have on the community surrounding YLM is further expanded through relationships with other non-profit organizations, such as the Rescue Mission of El Paso, a homeless shelter in downtown El Paso, and our local food bank, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger (West Texas Food Bank), who picked up several pallets of beans. Seven other food pantries located throughout the city were contacted to pick up a pallet or two.

With over 680,000 people living in El Paso, 6^th biggest city in Texas, the poverty percentage in this Border City is 10% higher than the entire state of Texas. With a mission of changing lives through simple acts of kindness, YLM dedicates its time and resources to help those in need; by partnering with other groups in El Paso, and across the border in our sister city of Juaréz, the positive impact can reach far and impact many people.

It was such an impactful visual to watch as pallets were loaded to truck beds, hitched flatbeds and eighteen wheelers, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase “spreading the wealth.” For someone who grew up in a low-income single parent household, where beans and rice were all there was to eat by the end of the month, it was truly humbling and inspiring to know those beans will be feeding thousands of hungry tummies!