Dear Friends,

Our family had a most remarkable and wonderful summer and I hope yours did, too. Each year we try to schedule a week at the beach or the mountains and get as many of us (my wife and I and seven children with their families) together as possible. This was our fifth summer of such attempts and we found ourselves converging on the Mexican city of San Luis Potosí. Our son had wooed and won the hand of Senorita Saray del Prado, and their marriage took place in her home church. Only a few of us had visited Mexico previously, and then only the northern border area. Now we were plunging into the center of the Country! The U.S. media’s frequent stories of Mexico did little to allay the fears that one naturally has to cope with in leaving one’s native country. But our close-knit family pressed on, determined to support son and brother Joseph and his plans for married life. Grandchildren were packed up and put on planes. Others car-pooled and undertook the journey by land with car and bus.

Our son’s life, and ours with him, had changed dramatically in less than 12 months since last summer’s vacation! There we were, a year later, gathered in the Santuário de San José surrounded by our new Mexican family’s relatives and friends for a glorious wedding celebration! Moreover, none of the stereotypes of Mexico that our Norte Americano minds had conjured in our imaginations had proved true. San Luis is a progressive and well-ordered city of one million, with a large, beautifully preserved Spanish colonial historic center full of architectural gems of plazas and churches. Best of all, because it is situated on a high plateau of over a mile in elevation, we wore sweaters on evening walks and the temperature never got above 85 degrees during the day – a welcome respite from Augusta’s heat at the end of July!

Just as our family could never have foreseen this summer’s events with their challenges, surprises and delights, Golden Harvest couldn’t have foreseen the economic hard times and having to increase food assistance by 16%! Neither can we predict what this fall and winter might bring to those of our neighbors who are in need. And just as our image of Mexico had to be greatly adjusted, the stereotypes of who is poor in America and what families may need food right here in Georgia and South Carolina have been demolished as well!

Thanks to you our donors, the Food Bank hasn’t been caught totally by surprise. We’re not able to bring every poor family to the idyllic times of our week in San Luis Potosí, but we can go far in easing the pain of being without food for many in our community.  hanks to you, we have been there for the needy!  

May God bless you for your generosity!