I t was a crisp fall morning as many gathered at the Gilbert Water Tower Plaza last week to help launch the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Light the World Giving Machines.

Several legislators joined Town Council and school board members from Gilbert, Mesa and Chandler to welcome the return of the international Light the World initiative, which since its launch in 2017 has raised over $50 million – including $6.7 million in Arizona.

Last year, over 100 locations around the globe hosted the special vending machines, including Africa and Asia for the first time.

Nearly 850,000 people visited them, selecting over 490,000 items in the machines that represented charities that provided two million meals, vaccines for 500,000 children and emergency food supplies for 125,000 refug

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