By China Cassidy Operation Love is a non-profit organization that operates out of the First Baptist Church in Holbrook providing food boxes for those in need. Serving more than 120 families each week, the organization receives a large distribution from the United Food Bank in Mesa and was in need of more storage space. To address the problem Jason Danch, the owner of the Winner’s Circle in Holbrook gifted the organization with three brand new freezers to help them preserve the food. According to Lou Yazzie, who has been volunteering at Operation Love since the beginning of this year, the organization provides perishable food items to those in need every Saturday in front of the church. Not only is food distributed but the boxes are tailored to suit the circumstances of the person or family receiving the food for those who may not be able to store perishable items. “Some of them, they live in a motel and they don’t have a source for cooking, so we have to make a different box for them. If they only can use a microwave and stuff like that, we have to give them a different kind of rations,” said Yazzie. He explained that in order to prevent waste and to be able to continue receiving their usual distribution from the United Food Bank, Operation Love shares with other organizations. “We give the mission some food, Catholic Charities, the senior citizens–because we don’t want it to go bad and we don’t want to tell them, you guys are giving us too much.” Even though the food that is distributed is always in demand, they don’t always have the space to store it until the next distribution, so Danch’s contribution will now allow the organization to keep the food at his establishment. “Sometimes they would just overwhelm us with frozen food so we would try to put as much as we can in those freezers. We would ask him if he could store the food for us for three nights and we would pick it up first thing Saturday. Whatever we stored with him was the first thing we’d get rid of.” Danch, who was also this year’s recipient of Businessman of the Year and has already previously donated funding to the Bread of Life Mission, saw the organization’s need for the freezers and did not hesitate to send his father to get them two 9 cubic foot freezers and one 7 cubic foot freezer. Yazzie recalled, “His dad came over here and said ‘hey Lou, Santa Clause came early this year and decided he wanted to give you three freezers.’ I almost fell over.” Even with COVID-19 restrictions reducing the amount of days they can distribute the food boxes Operation Love continues to provide food any day of the week that someone might find themselves in need. “Whoever comes in, gives their information. Whoever they have living with them, their children, grandchildren, you know–that’s what we go by. Then if people run out of food during the week then they come to the church, and we don’t turn nobody away,” Yazzie said, adding that Operation Love is still accepting any donations from the public and are still distributing boxes on Saturdays. Because of COVID-19, the organization has had to restrict the number of days that it serves the community to reduce the risk of spreading or contracting the virus. “Because of corona we haven’t been open on Wednesdays. Now they just double the food on Saturday to minimize exposure. We give out boxes from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., or whenever the last box goes out,” clarified Yazzie. Because of the holidays and rise in COVID cases, the amount of food to each family has increased last week in hopes that it will last until their next scheduled distribution on Saturday, Dec. 5.
