By Maureen McNair
A well-oiled machine of food pantry volunteers, including church members and dedicated people from the wider community, distributed free food to over 200 happy families last Saturday in our busiest food give-away to date. The South Bay Food Pantry volunteers gave away fresh produce, frozen chicken, eggs, a bag of dry goods, 8-10 food items from Starbucks, and artisan bread to each household. In addition, we gave frozen turkeys to several community members. We also delivered free turkeys to the homes of several church families. Many, many hours of prep work went into creating this mass food distribution. But, our volunteers managed to put several tons of nutritious food into our South Bay community in 90 minutes. Then, we cleaned up, and went home.

by Maureen McNair
The South Bay Food Pantry is pleased to announce we won a countywide competition to launch a program to distribute free period products. We accepted our first delivery this past Tuesday. We will distribute pads and tampons on Sundays during our free diaper distribution.
The period products program is being administered by the Regional Diaper Bank. Several months ago, our contact at the Diaper Bank let us know the period product program would be coming down the pipe. We submitted our application, then waited for the results. We are so pleased to be able to offer these products to the many women in our area who live near or below the poverty line. Our goal is to provide products to women in South County. Our pantry is one of only five pantries chosen to launch this project.
Distributing diapers and period products is a very easy volunteer job. Two people can easily cover a shift. If you are interested in distributing diapers and period products during the week, please contact me. Flexible days and hours are available. Thank you for your interest and support!

by Maureen McNair
Bob, who is physically disabled, lives in a two bedroom mobil home he rents with four strangers in south Chula Vista.
When Consuela’s son was born disabled, her husband left the family. She continues to care for her teenage son as a single parent and is their sole support.
Food prices are just too high for Manuel, who works full time, to pay rent and feed his wife and four children.
Last Saturday, our South Bay Food Pantry had its busiest food distribution to date. We broke the 200 families mark for the first time and gave away food to 204 heads of household.

Help First UU become more of a “happening place” and promote more multi-generational, ethnic, racial, and class diversity at First UU, including greater offerings for events - among members, attendees and families. The Board has created a new board committee to administer the Outreach and Growth Fund (OGF) that was created as part of the generous Renewal and Growth Fund donation to the church in late 2021.  ​