LWV-LA News:’
The League of Women Voters’ community event, Lunch with a Leader is noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16 at the Unitarian Church on Sage Street.
It will feature Jill Dixon from the SF Food Depot and Lyn Haval, the LA Cares director. Dixon is Deputy Director of The SF Food Depot. Eighteen years ago she came to New Mexico as a secondary education teacher after four years of working for Teach for America in economically disadvantaged areas.
In educational settings, she saw firsthand how a lack of access to food impacted a child’s sense of well being and academic potential. While working in business, she became aware of the Food Depot, which was searching for a development director and thus, the magic happened. Dixon finds incredible purpose in working daily to achieve food secure futures for New Mexicans. She has been a part of this dynamic organization for nearly 12 years, witnessing profound growth, and bold innovation. She looks forward to helping people join the food security movement.
Dixon will discuss the urgency of food insecurity and the many ways the hunger-relief network is working together on short and long term solutions to create healthy communities.
Haval was born and raised in California and attended various colleges while her husband was in the Air Force. Later she earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration at UC Riverside. She followed her daughter, son-in-law, and two granddaughters to Los Alamos to become a fulltime grandmother. When her granddaughter started school, she spent some free time helping out at LA Cares. Haval started by filling bags with canned goods, answering the phone messages, and packing bags of fruit. Soon she was asked to join the board, and when the president retired, she was elected president. Everyone on the Board of Directors helps with the monthly distribution and many hours in between doing support work behind the scenes. LA Cares is a 100 percent volunteer organization and 100 percent donation supported.
Haval will talk about how LA Cares operates, what they do with the Food Depot donations, what the local population looks like, and the many ways they assist residents of Los Alamos County.