SENIOR CENTER RECEIVES TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED TRUCK FROM ITCA
By Harrison J. Bahe
On January 16th, 2025, the Fort McDowell Senior Center received a new truck donation from the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (ITCA). The new truck is a four-wheel drive Ford F-150 with hot and cold food storage capabilities in the bed. Senior Center Manager Stefanie Camacho was on hand to inspect the new truck.
The ITCA, who administers the state grants from Arizona, initially contacted the Senior Center with offers to split the costs of acquiring the temperature-controlled truck. “They wanted to know if we could go half-and-half with it and we were like, ‘Let’s contact finance and see if we can do this,’ and before I even got a hold of finance, they were like, ‘Nope, we’re just gonna pay for the whole thing.” Stefanie Camacho shares.
So, the entire vehicle was graciously purchased and donated by the ITCA. “This is a temperature-controlled vehicle where we can hold hot food at a certain temperature and cold food at a certain temperature.” Camacho shares. The Senior Center regularly cooks and delivers food to senior citizens across the reservation, a process which takes close to an hour to do. “So, we’ll pack up the lunches at the senior center, we’ll stick ‘em in the truck, and it’ll keep the heat.”
Camacho is appreciative of the donation and even has some summer plans prepared for the vehicle. “Maybe we’ll start doing ice cream sales during the summer to raise funds for the senior center!” Camacho exclaims. The truck will begin servicing the nation in about a month as they are currently awaiting tags and a license plate for the vehicle. “So, I’m excited for it because we can possibly service more elders and that is basically our goal. We want to serve as many as we can,” Camacho concludes.
