St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance: World's First Food Bank!
Are you finding your dollar doesn’t go as far at the grocery store? If so, visit the Food Value Club!
A program of St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, Food Value Club is open to the general public.
No identification, income criteria or proof of citizenship required!
Cash, debit and Quest cards accepted.
Find unbelievable savings on a variety of food items purchased
by the Food Bank, including meat and canned goods.
Bonus items are included with every purchase free of charge!
For $30, receive a food package with meat, pasta, canned vegetables and other essentials. Packages also available $13 to 20.
Click here for more information on the Food Value Club.
Last year, Campbell Soup Company and the United States Postal Service, partnering with the National Association of Letter Carriers, collected more than 70 million pounds of food for food banks across the nation as part of the Stamp Out Hunger™ food drive.
As the largest single-day food drive, letter carriers in more than 10,000 communities collect nonperishable food items to help the neediest in our country, including more than 857,000 Arizonans.
It’s easy to participate!
On Saturday, May 10, place bags filled with nonperishable food items next to your mailbox. Your letter carrier will pick the bags up and deliver them to local food banks.
Here are some items to include: canned meats, vegetables and soups; juice in plastic bottles, pasta, cereal, and rice. Please do not include expired items or those in glass containers.
Visit www.HelpStampOutHunger.com for more information. Thank you for helping the Food Bank Stamp Out Hunger™!
Thank you volunteers and West Valley residents for making this year’s citrus gleaning season a huge success!
Friday, April 11 marked the end of the Food Bank’s citrus gleaning season. This year Food Bank staff and volunteers collected more than 1.4 million pounds of citrus, or more than double the amount collected at the same time last year.
Citrus is plentiful in Arizona and is a perfect nutritional item to include in the Food Bank’s Emergency Food Boxes. The Food Bank’s gleaning program connects volunteers with residents to pick leftover and unneeded citrus to donate to needy families.
Local soup kitchens are serving smaller portions and food pantries are putting fewer items in grocery bags. Not because hungry families and individuals need less help this week than they did last week, but because it is the only way to ensure that everyone in need gets something.
In fact, the situation among the hungry right now is just the opposite of needing less help. Due to the rising costs of food and gas, coupled with a troubled economy, struggling families and individuals need more help than ever before.
When you give to St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance, you are supporting more than one charitable organization that helps the hungry
This will be a difficult summer for more than 857,000 Arizonans living below the federal poverty level. Some are referring to the difficult conditions as the “perfect storm.” Rising gas and food prices, coupled with children not having access to school breakfast and lunch programs, will put additional pressure on already tight budgets. This means those kids will be eating more meals at home and potentially require some level of child care depending on their age. Include the increases we traditionally see on electric bills due to home air conditioning, and we have a recipe for disaster for the working poor and those on fixed incomes.
At the Food Bank, we expect to see more demand than ever for our food distribution programs. Remember, we are also feeling the pinch of fuel and food price increases. The Food Bank’s monthly fuel bill to operate a fleet of trucks to pick up and distribute donated food is more than $35,000, representing a 20 percent increase over last year. Also, the food we purchase in truckloads to supplement donation shortages is costing us more than last year. A tighter disposable income for many impacts the number of financial donations received by the Food Bank.
If you have the financial capacity to assist us in serving the community, we need your help now more than ever. Thanks in advance for your continued support!
Click here to view an online interview with AZfamily.com.
For additional insights into the Food Bank, read my Blog.
