Feel Good Friday - St. Mary's Food Bank

It’s the first Friday in September, which means it’s also National Food Bank Day. A perfect day to learn more about the organization that started it all, St. Mary’s Food Bank.

Founded in 1967 by John van Hengel and headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, St. Mary’s Food Bank is the world’s first food bank! Their mission is “bridging the gap for Arizona communities with nourishment for today and hope for tomorrow.”

As they explain on their website, food insecurity is a problem for 2 million Arizonans, which includes 1 in 5 children. To address this issue, St. Mary’s Food Bank provides food at no cost to over 900 partner agencies across Arizona. These include organizations such as food pantries, homeless shelters, meal centers, domestic violence shelters, afterschool programs for at-risk children and low-income senior living centers.

The programs run by St. Mary’s Food Bank and their partners include food distribution through both food banks and home delivery, child nutrition programs that provide healthy meals to children in daily after-school programs and during the summer, and a skills center that provides tailored job training in the culinary and foodservice industry as well as the warehouse and logistics industry.

Working with their partner agencies, St. Mary’s Food Bank distributes over 300,000 pounds of food each day. In fiscal year 2023, the total was more than 123,000,000 pounds of food, which is the equivalent of 93,000,000 meals! This food has been a lifeline for so many families across Arizona. You can read individual stories at this link.

If you’d like to support St. Mary’s Food Bank on National Food Bank Day, or any other, there are many ways to do so. People in Phoenix can volunteer their time and the rest of us can donate our money. Everyone can raise awareness by engaging on social media. Follow St. Mary’s Food Bank on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel.