A Season of Gratitude
At United Food Bank, we rely on donors like you to keep our mission alive: to unite communities to alleviate hunger and provide nutritious meals to neighbors experiencing food insecurity in Arizona. The holiday season is our busiest time of year, with hundreds of thousands of pounds of food coming into the food bank and going back out.
United Food Bank hosted more than 150 food drives in November, collecting more than 80,000 pounds of non-perishable food and over 1,500 turkeys. Gobble, gobble!
Those food drives included the fun and sporty oneLess Car Show which raised $8,000. OneAuto Movement and RadorDie teamed up to host the 6th annual car show/food drive at United Food Bank’s Volunteer Center in Mesa on Veteran’s Day.
School food drives were big in November too, with more than 23 schools hosting food drives to support United Food Bank.
The top school effort goes to students and staff at Williams Field High School in Gilbert whose outstanding efforts with their Stuff the Bus food drive collected more than 10,000 pounds of food. Shout out to the school’s National Honor Society for organizing the event!
“We love seeing students get involved. They really have a heart for giving and they bring so much goodness, even beyond the food, to the table,” says Mandy Hodges, United Food Bank’s Food Drive Manger.
The City of Mesa partnered with United Food Bank for a great Turkey Tuesday on Nov. 14. This big, community food drive brought in 1,100 turkeys and more than $34,000 in donations.
“The City of Mesa’s partnership with United Food Bank is instrumental in getting food to those in need,” said Mesa Mayor John Giles. “The Turkey Tuesday event is a great way to kick off this season of gratitude.”
Gratitude was on full display Nov. 20, at the 3rd annual Thanksgiving Food Distribution. Dozens of food bank volunteers, staff and partners, such as State Farm and the Arizona Cardinals, graciously helped hand out all the fixings needed to prepare a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. The first car arrived at 3:30 a.m. for the start of the event at 9 a.m. Shortly after, 50 more cars had arrived by 7 a.m. at the Mesa Convention Center. When it was over, more than 1,800 healthy holiday meals were distributed to friends and neighbors in the East Valley. That amounts to 116,000 pounds of food distributed in just four hours!
United Food Bank will host one more Christmas Food Distribution on Dec. 20, also at the Mesa Convention Center.
Thank you again to our donors for making all of this possible. It is not too late to make a last-minute contribution to our efforts. Donations can be made by visiting unitedfoodbank.org.
Written by KC Raguay
