​ROTARY FOOD DRIVE BENEFITS EIGHT LOCAL FOOD PANTRIES

A Morongo Basin wide food drive collected enough food and funding to bring big benefits to eight local food pantries. Three Rotary clubs, Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, and Yucca Valley Sunset, combined their efforts for the annual food collection held Friday, April 24th. The clubs set up collection areas at the Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley East Stater Brothers grocery stores. Shoppers were given lists of food items which were then collected and organized into bags designed to feed a family of four for two days.
 
Organizer Mary Helen Tuttle of Joshua Tree Rotary said the Yucca Valley location netted 122 bags and Twentynine Palms 100 during the six-hour event.  Valued at about $25.00 each, the bags represented a value of $5,550.00. In addition, donation jars at both locations netted another $371.00. The cash was used to purchase selected food items to fill in what was needed for each bag. Other donations from Rotary and private sources, plus a rollover from the 2025 event, brought another $3,192.00.
 
The Saturday morning after the event the food was distributed to eight Food Pantries, plus all the extra oddball stuff collected and not put in bags. In addition to the food bags, the pantries will each receive checks for $399.00.
The beneficiaries are:
29 Palms Food Pantry
The Way Station
Roth Memorial Food Pantry at Oasis Church
Morongo Basin Arch
Boys and Girls Club of Yucca Valley
Student Needs at Copper Mountain College
Pay'n It Forward 
Copper Mtn Mesa Community Association
 
Organizers thanked Stater Brothers for the locations and Cardinal Van and Storage for the trucks used to collect and transport the food.
 
Tuttle said the Rotary Clubs will continue to collect donations until May 5th and will give the funds to the Food Pantries at the Joshua Tree Rotary meeting of Wednesday, May 6th. There is still time to donate tax deductible dollars, send to:
 
Rotary Club of Joshua Tree Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 1323, Joshua Tree, CA 92252.
 
Or contact Bryan Sullivan 760-668-8195 or Paul Hoffman 760-832-3188.
 
Rotary International has about 1.2 million members in 45,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary clubs bring together people across generations who wish to create lasting change in the world, in their communities, and in themselves.

 
Photos:
 
Rotary YV JT 2026
Rotarians man the food drive booth in Yucca Valley April 24th. From left, Bryan Sullivan from Joshua Tree Rotary, Sue Tsuda from Yucca Valley Sunset Rotary and Kimberly Mejia from Joshua Tree. (Rotary Club photo)
 
Rotary 29 2026
Rotarians from the Twentynine Palms Club man the food drive table April 24th at Stater Brothers, From left, Dann Rothwell, Anna Stump, Judy Cates, and Randy Councell. (Rotary Club photo)