Gov. Doug Ducey promised $1.6 million this week to help Arizona food banks expand home delivery as demand has skyrocketed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement came Thursday at a news conference at St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix. Tom Kertis, St. Mary's president and CEO, said requests for food assistance doubled and volunteers disappeared this spring when the pandemic struck. The National Guard stepped in to deliver food, and they're still doing that for 1,000 households daily.
St. Mary's Food Bank will receive $600,000, which they'll use to reach 2,000 additional homebound seniors across Maricopa, Coconino, Gila, Mohave, Pinal and Yavapai counties.
“These people are in the most dire situation. Many of them have complications that prevent them from going out. And although we have food to provide to them, they can’t get there," Kertis said.
An additional $525,000 will go to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona in Tucson to reach 2,000 more seniors in Pima County and continue delivering fresh produce to residential senior living facilities.
The final $500,000 of funding will go toward replenishing the Double Up Food Bucks program, which encourages healthy choices by doubling the value of SNAP/EBT benefits used on fresh produce. This money will allow 7,500 SNAP participants per month to get an extra dollar for each dollar they spend at farmers markets. It will also allow for reinstating services at Bashas' Diné Market on the Navajo Nation.
The money comes from the Crisis Contingency and Safety Net Fund, a $50 million bucket the state set aside in March to deal with COVID-19.
“By partnering with food banks and generous individuals around the state, Arizona is working to make sure that no family goes hungry this holiday season,” Ducey said. “During the pandemic, we’ve worked to stretch and strengthen the social safety net. We’ve seen demand increase at our food banks, and we are stepping up to meet that demand. I’m grateful to our community partners, our National Guard members, and all the selfless volunteers working to make sure there’s food on the table this holiday season.”
In March, Arizona dedicated $1.75 million to improve food security in Arizona. This included $1 million in immediate food bank assistance and $500,000 to expand the Double-Up Food Bucks program, which had already served nearly 50,000 SNAP recipients.
In May, Ducey announced an additional $500,000 grant from the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund for Arizona food banks to help fight hunger. The funding went toward addressing the spike in demand due to COVID-19, including meeting the needs of individuals with disabilities, acquiring more packaging materials to deliver food, securing additional storage space, implementing further adaptations to promote physical distancing among clients and coordinating drive-through food pick-ups.
