Serving Up Hope, Meals and Smiles for the Blind And Visually Impaired

"Food insecurity is huge among our clients, and our partnership with Waste Not and our food service program is so important to our clients being healthy and be able to regain their independence." - Michelle Hargreaves, the Chief Development Officer at ACBVI.

For many of us, our sense of sight is something we rarely think twice about. Our gift of sight helps us read, move through the world and witness life’s most meaningful moments, like watching a child graduate or enjoying a beautiful sunset with a loved one. But when that is taken away, sometimes suddenly, the effects can be profound and life-altering. Everyday tasks can turn into obstacles, making it hard for blind and visually impaired individuals to live independently.

That is when Waste Not’s partner agency, Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ACBVI), steps in.

Recognizing a lack of resources for blind and visually impaired individuals, a small group of determined people from the blind community came together to establish ACBVI in 1947. Since then, the center has been dedicated to helping adults who are blind, visually impaired or those living with combined vision and hearing loss rebuild their lives. At its core, ACBVI believes that blindness is not the end of independence—but the start of a new journey.

ACBVI offers a wide range of personalized services by helping clients learn essential life skills such as cooking, using assistive technology and navigating the world with a white cane. Creative outlets such as ceramics and music production classes give clients a fun sense of stress relief and interaction. The career readiness program helps prepare its clients to reenter the workforce once they graduate from ACBVI.

One of the center’s most inspiring programs is its monthly adventure outings. Each month, clients participate in activities that many might consider impossible without sight, such as skiing, kayaking or tandem cycling across Scottsdale during the Tour de Scottsdale!

Michelle Hargreaves, the Chief Development Officer at ACBVI, believes this adventure outing program is an instrumental and transformational experience for clients.  

"Those activities translate into the rest of their lives. If they can go kayaking as a person that is newly blind or has lost their vision, then they can gain their independence and go back to work."

But, before clients can take advantage of these activities and thrive in these programs, their basic needs must be met, starting with food. 

Food insecurity among the blind and visually impaired community is a critical but often overlooked issue. When someone loses their vision, a domino effect follows. Usually, when someone loses their vision, they cannot work and, therefore, lose their job, which may cause financial hardships. As a result, it becomes difficult to pay for rent, food and medical care. Without the ability to drive to the grocery store, having access to food becomes a significant challenge. Many blind individuals also face coexisting health issues like diabetes, heart disease, depression and anxiety. Without proper and consistent access to nutritious foods or medical care, their conditions can be worsened.

"For our clients, once they lose their vision, they lose access to a lot of the world,” explained Hargreaves. "The adults that we work with are living with everything that you and I are working with, sometimes food insecurity, sometimes homelessness, but on top of that they're living with a disability, and one they weren't born with, one they're learning to navigate the world with as a newly blind person." 

ACBVI's Recording Studio

ACBVI offers an on-site small pantry containing snacks and easy-to-make options to address this urgent need. This enables clients to prepare and eat various foods with ease. But thanks to the partnership with Waste Not, ACBVI can go even further by cooking and serving two nutritious meals five days a week. 

Chef Thomas Schaefer, a classically trained chef with over 40 years of experience, is the center of this operation. Using the food he receives from Waste Not, Shaefer enjoys the creative challenge of creating new recipes based on what he receives. But for him, the greatest reward isn’t just cooking; it's connecting with the people he feeds on a personal level. 

“I think the ability to be one-on-one with clients and to put a smile on their face is why I'm here,” said Shaefer.  

Through this program, ACBVI clients can eat nutritious meals that will improve their health and mental well-being.  

It is often difficult for those who aren’t blind or visually impaired to imagine what life is like without the gift of sight. At ACBVI, one of its most powerful missions is to rewrite the narrative around blindness and eliminate the stigma. Hargreaves wants everyone to understand:

"People dealing with vision loss or are completely blind are just like you and me,” explained Hargreaves. “These aren't people who are helpless; these aren't people who want a handout; these are people who desperately want to contribute and want to learn how to be independent again."  

Thanks to the community’s support of Waste Not, ACBVI is not only feeding clients but also building brighter futures. Donate today to help our partners like ACBVI continue to serve those in need!