How To Give To Feeding America In Maricopa County

PHOENIX — Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, predicted this would happen as millions of Americans lost their jobs, their paychecks and even their businesses because of the coronavirus pandemic: Hunger is an urgent problem for about 515,130 people in Maricopa County.

You can help. Patch and Feeding America teamed last summer to address the growing hunger crisis in America, connecting readers with the organization’s 200 member food banks that serve 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, and providing an easy way to donate money to help their neighbors.

Now through Dec. 31, we’re encouraging readers to make a tax-deductible contribution to Feeding America in the Patch Holiday Food Drive. Every $1 given to the organization buys 10 meals.

Local resources include:

• St. Mary's Food Bank
• United Food Bank

Feeding America predicted last summer that 50 million people, including 17 million children, could face hunger by year’s end because of the pandemic. Feeding America projects the food insecurity rate in Maricopa County will rise to 15.6 percent in 2020, up from 12.1 percent in 2018.

Jerry Brown, the vice president of public relations for St. Mary's Food Bank, has been with the organization for 11 years and saw it through the 2008 recession. St. Mary's is the world's oldest food bank and one of the country's largest, but it's struggling to keep up with the demand.

"In those 53 years, we've never seen a year like this," Brown previously told Patch.

While need has increased rapidly throughout the county, the coronavirus pandemic has put a hamper in food drives and volunteering, said Tyson Nansel, vice president of external affairs for United Food Bank.

"A lot of small businesses that are open are doing food drives, schools that are open that traditionally do food drives with us are doing them," he told Patch. "Unfortunately, those numbers have been small donations, but you know what, they're trying to get communities and students involved so that's a great thing to have them involved."

Feeding America says that 80 percent of its food banks — or 4 in 5 — are serving more people than they were at the same time last year. With the pandemic worsening during the holiday season, many people who never before worried about how they’d pay for a holiday meal are turning to food banks for the first time.

From the beginning of the pandemic in March, Feeding America distributed 4.2 million meals — enough to provide every U.S. resident with breakfast, lunch and dinner for just over four days.

In the first four months of the pandemic, 4 in 10 people were first-time visitors to food banks, according to Feeding America.

How To Support The Patch Holiday Food Drive

Patch has teamed with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that in 2020, more than 50 million Americans will not have enough nutritious food to eat due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.