Roy Rockhold

Roy Rockholt, a retired senior volunteer from Porterville, CA, conceived, organized and put into motion a daily free lunch program in his community of 50,000.

The program under his daily supervision serves over 3,500 free meals a month with the help of local volunteers. The program has been run out of local churches but as of August 2007 Helping Hands now serves out of a new building constructed especially for this purpose.

Roy fund-raised over $300,000 and collaborated with a local church to make possible this location for serving homeless and families in poverty. Roy finds food and supplies to feed the poor through donations and superb resourcefulness. He puts thousands of miles on his PT Cruiser tapping the community for the poor.

Roy has a heart for the poor. He has put together a well-conceived, well-organized program for the less fortunate and mostly shunned people in this community. His willingness to serve and share his time works well together with his resourcefulness and bold approach to those who can help. Roy impacts the community of Porterville daily by feeding and making welcome the hungry. He has also made his community aware of the needs of the poor and homeless. His influence runs from the Board of Supervisors and the City Council to volunteers willing to serve.

He has found a way to meet a need by pulling together an entire community and he expects to sustain this effort for a long time to come.