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Jim Harlin Community Pantry receives $10,000 donation

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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico provided a $10,000 donation to the Jim Harlin Community Pantry June 21 to help fund the Pantry’s Feed McKinley County program.

The donation took place at the JHCP at 1130 Hasler Valley Road. On hand were Alice Perez, chief operating officer at JHCP, Becky Kenny, public information officer with BCBS, and Sammy Chioda, a local businessman and member of the BCBS board of directors.

“It is something that is very respected and very welcomed,” Perez said. “We are thankful for the donation.”

The program provides family-style food products of high nutritional value to supplement meals for qualifying McKinley County residents, Kenny explained. The JHCP’s goal is to enrich the lives of the McKinley County community through supplementing the nutritional goals for better health, Perez noted.

“We supplement the food,” she said. “The government and donations are just part of where our food comes from.”

Board Members React:

“I think I speak for everyone in that this is a very welcomed donation,” Chioda said. “Gallup and McKinley County appreciates this.”

Kenny said funding comes from Blue Cross Blue Shield New Mexico Healthy Kids, Healthy Families grant program.

“This is our third year that we have provided a donation to the [Community Pantry],” she said.

The Jim Harlin Community Pantry serves people in the greater McKinley County area. It is the sole branch in Gallup and McKinley County wherein the focus is food distribution to the needy. JHCP serves more than 1,200 families with food boxes, and children receive a backpack on weekends containing seven to 10 food items, Kenny and Perez said. Some two dozen agencies receive produce and various dry goods to assist with their homeless programs, the two said.

The Community Pantry was founded in 1999 by the late Jim Harlin and Tom Crider. It serves people in northwestern New Mexico and includes a branch in Grants.

By Bernie Dotson

Sun Correspondent

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