St. Mary’s Food Bank distributed 90,000 pounds of food Tuesday to Navajo families who are under self-isolation orders. The tribe has at least 813 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 28 Navajos have died due to the coronavirus.
The line of cars was five miles long before volunteers began distributing food boxes at the Tuba City fairgrounds. Tribal members stayed in their cars with the windows rolled up as volunteers asked them to hold up fingers to indicate how many people in each family.
St. Mary’s spokesman Jerry Brown says this is the largest mobile pantry distribution they’ve ever done.
“The need on the Navajo reservation was large before COVID-19,” Brown said. “We send a lot of food to that area usually through the schools. ... But once this hit and people needed to stay home, it was obvious we needed to do something on a large scale.”
The tribe was recently shuttered in their homes under a weekend-long curfew. Up to 40% of Navajos must haul water and 30% don’t have electricity to refrigerate their food.
