St. Mary’s distributes Thanksgiving meals to nearly 11,000 Arizona families

PHOENIX — St. Mary’s Food Bank distributed Thanksgiving meals to nearly 11,000 Arizona families during its annual three-day giving event that ended Tuesday.

The Phoenix-based nonprofit handed out the holiday food boxes — consisting of turkey, dairy, nonperishables, potatoes, apples and other assorted foods — from Sunday through Tuesday.

St. Mary’s said it received more than 9,000 donated turkeys, a record for the holiday.

“Thank you so much to all the business, organizations, schools and families who shared what they have with others in need,” St. Mary’s spokesman Jerry Brown said in a press release.

Food bank employees, hundreds of volunteers and the Arizona National Guard helped hand out the meals during a 14-hour stretch spanning three days.

St. Mary’s had less walk-up recipients than normal this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

That led to the increased usage of the food bank’s non-contact option.

“Cases are spiking sharply and people have gotten used to our non-contact model, which has been in place for months,” Brown said. “Distancing makes sense.”

Turkeys are still coming in and leftover ones will used for large-scale mobile pantry distributions in December.

St. Mary’s will be closed during the Thanksgiving weekend and will resume operations Monday at 7:30 a.m.

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