You can help feed hungry neighbors and take home a one-of-a-kind, handcrafted bowl.
Last year, more than 22,000 people in Maricopa County were homeless. Two million people in Arizona don’t have enough food to eat. Over 60% percent of our neighbors are living paycheck to paycheck, and that paycheck barely covers rent and the basic necessities of life.
To highlight solutions to hunger and poverty, Mesa Community College hosts annual Empty Bowls events in conjunction with World Food Day with proceeds benefitting Paz de Cristo Community Center.
Participants can choose a unique, handcrafted bowl and dine on a simple meal of bread, soup and water in exchange for a $10 donation. This meal symbolically represents the caloric intake that sustains many around the world for an entire day.
All proceeds will directly benefit Paz de Cristo Community Center which provides more than 50,000 meals each month to neighbors battling hunger, poverty and homelessness. $10 helps provide 25 meals.
Silent auctions featuring ceramic work by some of the Valley’s most talented artists will be held at both mid-day events. Please join us!
Follow us on socials for annual dates, usually in November
Southern & Dobson Campus
1833 W. Southern Ave, Mesa
Paz de Cristo Community Center is now in a better position to help more people in need.
Thrivent Financial welcomed Paz de Cristo to the Thrivent Choice®, a program that helps strengthen communities and changes lives. With Thrivent Choice®, eligible members are given the power to recommend where some of the organization’s charitable outreach funds are distributed each year.
Since 2010, Thrivent has given more than $370 million in charitable outreach funds to support churches, schools and other nonprofit organizations like Paz de Cristo.
Staff and volunteers at Paz de Cristo will put the much-needed funding to work right away. Food to provide more than 50,000 meals each month, new socks, t-shirts and underwear as well as hot showers, bus passes, birth certificates, vouchers for Arizona identification, internet access and job coaching are a few of the resources and services that will be fueled by Thrvient Choice.
“Thrivent dollars stretch our resources so that we can reach more people in need,” stated Arlen Westling, Executive director of Paz de Cristo. Last year, more than 22,000 people in Maricopa County were homeless. Two million people in Arizona don’t have enough food to eat. Nearly 30 percent of our neighbors live on a paycheck that barely covers rent and the basic necessities of life.
Paz de Cristo’s mission is to Feed, Clothe and Empower people in need in the Phoenix East Valley. It is a natural fit with Thrivent Financial, a membership organization that helps Christians be wise with money and live generously. To direct your Choice Dollars to Paz de Cristo, contact a Customer Care Professional at 1-800-THRIVENT (800-847-4836) and say “Thrivent Choice” at the prompt or email [email protected].
Paz de Cristo is celebrating 30 years of helping neighbors struggling with hunger, poverty and homelessness.
The 30th anniversary fundraising breakfast will be held on Wednesday, September 26, 2018. Participants will take a trip down memory lane celebrating milestones and victories with the theme “Pearls of Hope and Dignity.”
The First Supper
The first supper was served to twelve people on card tables in a parking lot at the corner of Hibbert & Main Street in Mesa. That was then.
Today more than 200 of our neighbors in need receive a hot meal every night of the year in the dining hall at the current location on Broadway Road in Mesa. Paz de Cristo doesn’t stop there.
Feed, Clothe and Empower
Services have expanded from providing more than 50,000 meals each month to helping people completely turn their lives around. The organization’s mission is to Feed, Clothe and Empower people in need.
Clean clothes, a hot shower and a new haircut give guests a fresh start. Their transformation can be seen and felt as they stand tall with hope for a brighter future.
Volunteers and staff help people find jobs and remove barriers so that they can get ahead. One-on-one assistance searching through job openings, writing resumes, applying for jobs online and preparing for interviews propels people forward. Essentials for the job search are provided including an email address, bus passes for transportation to interviews, birth certificates and vouchers for Arizona identification.
Since the Job Center opened in 2014, more than 1,300 people have taken advantage of these services.
Thank You
Paz de Cristo’s work is fueled by the Mesa community. “We are grateful to have such generous, faithful volunteers and donors as part of our family,” stated Executive Director Arlen Westling. “They’ve made these thirty years possible!”
