Real Estate Round-Up: Speaking locally

Fallbrook is a wonderful place to live. As a community, we have found ways to take care of our town and the people that live in it. As a community, we support our children through the Boys and Girls Club and the Child Development Center. We support our seniors through the Fallbrook Senior Center and the Foundation for Senior Care.

We support the arts, our trails, our parks and the town through our commitment to Fallbrook Art's Inc., Fallbrook Land Conservancy, Fallbrook Beautification Alliance, Save Our Forest and the Fallbrook Village Association.

We do a very good job at helping our own, through the financial and physical support by sponsors and volunteers in all these groups. Despite all of this, did you know that, even in our special town, 1,003 families each week go to the Fallbrook Food Pantry for food?

Since September 2019, the number of families seeking help to provide food for themselves has nearly doubled. This need is truly at the heart or the very core of basic life and with this growing need, I thought it was worthy to make everyone aware of it.

Thirty-eight percent of that figure are children; 20% are seniors and 8% are military. Many of our children are arriving to school hungry. Seniors, who can travel to the food pantry, are supplementing their need for food. Military families, who are serving us, seek food to have enough.

The numbers are so high that I bet many of us know people who are supported by the Fallbrook Food Pantry but remain private about their need because they are embarrassed by it. Afterall, food is a basic, right? We should all be able to have enough food, especially in a well-to-do community like Fallbrook. I think it's just that many of us are not aware of how great the need is and how quickly the need is growing.

The cost of living for those on fixed incomes continues to rise. Every time we have a new tax or regulation that ultimately impacts transportation or production, prices go up on food and basic staples.

How does a mother buy healthy food, basic hygiene items or even milk for her children? For those relying on Social Security, their income hasn't gone up, but the cost of Medicare and prescription drugs has.

Military pay for the enlisted person is so low that we should be embarrassed by it, yet their cost of housing, utilities, gas and food continues to rise.

There is no way that we, as a community, can affect the big picture items. We can however help people, specifically 1,003 families a week, by supporting the Fallbrook Food Pantry.

I recently asked myself and other friends who do not suffer from food insecurity, if they would consider fasting for a few days to make this need feel real. None of us wanted to do that for a few days or even a day, because we know the impact it would have on our ability to function.

Imagine that feeling being with you every day? Thankfully, without fasting or finding ourselves in a state of need, we will never know. But that doesn't change or lessen the great need that exists.

I'm bringing this to your attention first because I believe it is a silent need, a private need that we either don't know about or choose to not be involved with. It could impact any of us or the people we know at any time if life just throws you a curve like a job loss or serious accident or illness.

Secondly there is a remedy to curb the need and that is supporting the Fallbrook Food Pantry. I am reaching out to you personally to ask you to get involved with this 501C3 nonprofit by supporting our upcoming sixth annual charity event, May 15.

The event features dinner, dancing, a live auction and sponsorship activities, preceded by a fun golf tournament, all at Pala Mesa Resort. One hundred percent of the funds raised at this event go directly to support the needs of the growing number of families that need food.

So what does this have to do with real estate? I've begun to feel that everything impacts real estate. Real estate health doesn't exist in a bubble.

Every law, every tax, every regulation, every need impacts the value of real estate. There are many powerful attacks on the well-being of the residents of Fallbrook. Food is one that we can all get behind and help alleviate.

A community that takes care of its own is a desirable community to live in. The value of your home is tied to the community's value. I look forward to seeing all of you, May 15!

Kim Murphy can be reached at [email protected] or (760) 415-9292 or at 130 N Main Avenue, in Fallbrook. Her broker license is #01229921, and she is on the board of directors for the California Association of Realtors.