When Josephine Cooper was growing up, she learned the importance of charity from her parents. Although they made a modest living for their family of 10, they insisted on sharing with those less fortunate. Half a century later, Mrs. Cooper became a beloved volunteer at the San Diego Food Bank, where she devoted herself to helping others. She organized and ran a distribution center from a church, helping it become the organization's largest emergency food distribution center in San Diego. She was one of 25 outstanding senior volunteers in the nation selected and invited to Washington D.C. to receive the award. "She was the main person who helped us make that program grow," said Mike Doody, former director of the Food Bank. "She had a way of getting people to work together and to work hard. She was determined and stubborn, but in a good way. She had a good heart." People knew her as "Grandma" because of her selflessness and her devotion to helping hungry children and families. "She reminded people of their Grandma." Doody said. As a widow with a young child in 1979, Mrs. Cooper was helped through a difficult financial time when the Food Bank provided her with groceries. "She dedicated her life to giving back," said her daughter, Monica Cooper. "She loved life, and she loved people. She was very outgoing, caring and very concerned about our community."  Cooper said it wasn't unusual for a local church to call Mrs. Cooper to ask her to aid a needy family. "She would give people food out of her cupboard. Sometimes we would cook a meal for a family living out of their car," Cooper said. Although Mrs. Cooper was honored to receive the national award for her volunteer work, she said being able to help others was her reward. Mrs. Cooper was confined to a wheelchair in recent years. She died of liver disease and kidney failure this year, aged 93. The San Diego Food Bank is meant to_.
distribute food in case of emergency help hungry children and families give basic first-aid treatment train some senior volunteers