The lasting legacy of the ‘Festival of Trees’
When Geraldine Arviso died in August, she left the Gallup community with memories of the ways she touched others.
As the head of the Gallup chapter of Soroptimists International, she was part of the local effort to help women and girls live their dreams — the mission of the organization, by providing such important bridges to independence as a gas card, when it was needed, and a computer for an area woman working to improve her situation.
When she organized the Festival of Trees fundraiser, her name became connected with what has now become a family tradition.
Maura Schanefelt, her daughter, who is organizing the event in her mother’s memory this year, said her mother’s dedication to this festival has been taken up by her father, sister, grandmother, great aunt and son.
This family tradition has grown into part of the annual holiday season for Gallup, being sponsored by other organizations including Rotary and Kiwanis.
This year it will benefit the Community Pantry, as it did in 2019.
For Schanefelt it is tied to her mother.
“I’m hopeful that in years to come, the annual Festival of Trees will be in memory of her [Geraldine Arviso].”
HOW THE FESTIVAL HELPS FEED PEOPLE
This year’s Festival of Trees is dedicated to helping the Community Pantry, by selling tickets to people, who stand a chance of winning a decorated tree or wreath.
The tickets are $3 apiece, or four for $10. That money goes to the Pantry, which finds itself staring down some of the longest lines of hungry people since Alice Perez took the spot as executive director there in 2015.
Last year, Perez told the Sun, the fundraiser brought in $5,000.
Schanefelt said this year is a difficult one.
“We’re trying to be optimistic [about raising money]. But realistically, Schanefelt said, [we’re hoping to bring in] $2 thousand.”
The Community Pantry is hard at work and stretches every dollar it receives.
“Pre-COVID we were servicing about 3,500 families a month [that includes both pantries]. Now we’re at over 7,000 because of the unemployment, limited work hours, [and] restaurants shutting down,” Perez said.
“When you have two small communities that are about 75 percent entrepreneurialship, you have two communities that are hurting a lot,” she pointed out.
She also talked about the stresses on grandparents living on fixed incomes, who find themselves taking care of children.
Perez said it’s not just more families coming to the pantry for food, there is also more food being given out.
“Pre-COVID our distribution was approximately about 120-160 pounds per box. Right now we’re giving between 220-260 pounds per family. People can pick up twice [in a month] when they need it,” she said.
Where does it all come from? Perez said the food is donated by local groceries, Feeding America, organizations, foundations, non-profits, and people from across the U.S. — from as far away as Pennsylvania.
REACHING OUT
As the Festival of Trees continues to provide help to others each year, the Community Pantry does, too.
In addition to handing out boxes of food as part of its Commodities Program, the Community Pantry grows food. In the winter that takes place in hoop houses.
Free Produce is a program available to everyone to promote healthy eating, especially for people who have diabetes, which Perez points out, is rampant in the area.
The pantry also participates in the downtown Gallup farmer’s market in summer months one day a week, honoring Double Bucks, a program that allows people with EBT cards to spend $5 and receive $10 worth of produce.
There is a Food for Kids, or backpack program that is run through the school system, which helps provide for children who do not get enough to eat at home on the weekends.
The Emergency Food Box program bridges the gap for people in emergency situations. “If the car breaks down and it costs $250 to get it fixed — there goes the grocery money,” Perez said. “We want people to stay employed.”
The Dollar Stretcher or Meat Box Stretcher program allows the pantry to use its buying power to create special boxes of food that can be sold to members of the community at a discount, allowing them to save money by shopping at the pantry instead of at a grocery store.
Perez is grateful for the help from the Festival of Trees.
Like the tradition of generosity Geraldine Arviso started years ago, the Community Pantry also reaches out beyond its own borders by helping other nonprofits to feed people in communities that cannot get to it.
By Beth Blakeman
Associate Editor
