Celebrating a day five years in the making and completing a total transformation of its new Stardust Campus, St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance officially opened its new University of Phoenix Programs Center at 3003 West Thomas Road on July 13.
The centerpiece of a recently completed $10.9 million capital campaign is designed to meet the overwhelming demand for emergency food services in Arizona. Named after a major campaign contributor, the University of Phoenix Programs Center will house shopping for many of the Food Bank's 500 agency partners as well as expanded space for its Kids Cafe children's feeding program the Community Kitchen training program and the Albertson's Bistro.
The 35,000 square-foot building could not be opening at a better time. St. Mary's distributed more than 72.2 million pounds of food in the just-completed 2009-10 Fiscal Year, the most in its 43-year history, making St. Mary's the largest food bank in the country. Demand for emergency food from St. Mary's has risen more than 70 percent in the last two years, and the strain on existing infrastructure made serving the public increasingly difficult.
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