St. Mary’s Food Bank hit a new record for the number of Thanksgiving meals it gave out this year.
For decades, St. Mary’s has distributed Thanksgiving meals to thousands of families in Phoenix, Surprise and on tribal lands. Last year they distributed 21,000 meals and this year, volunteers nearly reached the 22,000 mark.
Jerry Brown is the food bank’s director of public relations. He said they’ve seen a steady rise in the number of Arizona families who need help.
“We have seen a consistent 10-15% increase across the board in the number of people who come to the food bank daily," Brown said. "We see 1,700 families a day when it’s not Thanksgiving. So we knew we were going to have to increase that total.”
Each meal can serve about five to six people.
“So that extrapolates to over 120,000 people that will be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner," Brown said.
He added that some people got in line six to eight hours before they started distribution on Monday.
"The lines were 1 to 2 miles long on both Monday and Tuesday," Brown said. "We even had one lady go into labor while she was in the line."
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct the number of meals distributed this year.
