Chicanos por la Causa

COVID-19 may have disrupted so many things — everything, really — but it couldn’t stop the GCU community from finding ways to help its neighbors. From establishing new partnerships, such as with CityServe International in the USDA Farmers to Families food box distributions, to strengthening existing partnerships with such groups as Chicanos por la Causa, GCU has become an even more integral part of the community. “It’s a more intimate relationship that we have with the community,” said Community Relations Manager Debbie Accomazzo. “We’re all coming from the same place of vulnerability, and, because of that, we all have the same risks and many of the same things at stake. So I think we’re sharing that vulnerability in new ways.” Reprinted from the February 2021 issue of GCU Magazine.

Just before the first COVID vaccines were administered to health care workers on Monday, GCU was the site of a free-of-charge, community COVID Testing Blitz. Almost 800 individuals — about 700 who drove through and 100 who walked up — were tested at Saturday’s event on 27th Avenue, organized by the R.A.P.I.D. Coalition to meet the health care needs of vulnerable and underserved populations, including in Maryvale.

Students volunteers had the chance to roll up their sleeves Wednesday for the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program distribution event at the 27th Avenue complex, an event hosted by GCU in partnership with CityServe International. About 165 students loaded and delivered more than 1,050 boxes of food prepared by Shamrock Farms, each weighing about 30 pounds and filled with everything from meat to bags of apples and carrots, cheese, milk and more. The boxes went to more than 20 community service organizations and churches, which then distributed those boxes to families in need. It was just the first event in an even bigger project with CityServe in which the University would be the Arizona distribution hub for products that will go to needy families.