Non-Profit provides help for single parents with cancer

The Singletons is a non-profit that provides assistance to single parents going through cancer. They just received two grants totaling $118,300 from the Arizona Food Bank Network. This sizable gift funder by the Maricopa County, includes an initial grant for $95,000, which supports The Singletons kitchen and transportation project, and helps provide nutritious dinners to simplify meal preparation.

Another grant of $23,300 was gifted to provide three hydroponic gardens, two aquaponic towers, insulated bags for meal kit storage and transportations as well as other supplies need maintain kitchen functionality.

Jody Boyd, executive director for the Singletons, speaks about the organization.

“The Singletons was started in 2006 after the loss of a childhood friend by the name of Michelle Singleton. And she was 32-years-old when she passed, 30 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and a single mom of four children,” Boyd said.

Boyd said she was inspired by Michelle’s journey and how life cannot stop because of a cancer diagnosis.

“It was very organic at first. We would do things like help a mom pay a copay when she was going to the doctor or make sure that there was some pizza there when she got home for the kids to eat. Over the years we’ve grown it into an organization where we stocked the home with the essential supplies,” Boyd said.

Regardless of what the outcome is with the diagnosis, the main goal of this organization is to bring families together during a difficult time and aid them in establishing a normal family structure again, according to Boyd.

The Arizona Food Bank grant allowed the organization to purchase new kitchen equipment, such as freezers, storage space and a new van to go to St. Mary’s Food Bank once a week. The Singletons now also have 16 families in Tucson, which is a new feat for the organization.