Gold Canyon food bank sees increased demand

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

Hundreds of families twice a month supplement their nutritional needs with bags of food from a charity in Gold Canyon.

Some food distributed from Gold Canyon UMC Food Bank, 8330 E. Sunrise Sky Drive, is donated by area residents, purchased with monetary contributions or provided by United Food Bank. Food is also available from TEFAP — The Emergency Food Assistance Program — a federal program providing emergency food assistance at no cost to low-income individuals.

A total of 8.1% of Gold Canyon’s population of more than 11,000 live in poverty with an income below $37,275 for a family of four, according to the U.S. Census, but the food is available for anyone in need.

And the need is great, according to Gold Canyon UMC Food Bank distribution statistics for the last four years:

• In 2021: 6,563 individuals in 2,224 families received food.
• In 2022: 8,208 individuals in 2,997 families received food.
• In 2023: 9,929 individuals in 3,753 families received food.
• In 2024: 10,449 individuals in 3,857 families received food.

The numbers for the first two months in 2025 are:

• In January, 971 individuals in 369 families received food. A total of 419 TEFAP packages were given out.
• In February, 740 individuals in 275 families received food. A total of 316 TEFAP packages were given out.

As federal programs make cuts under mandates from the Trump administration, it is hoped there will be no decrease in emergency food supplies or funding for the local food bank.

“We’re always concerned about that, but we have a very generous and caring congregation with the church and our community is very supportive so we know that we can count on them. I hope it’s not the case,” said Margaret DeMar, a food bank volunteer and co-manager.

She believes there will continue to be an increased need for the food to be distributed in Gold Canyon.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if we see an increase,” she said. “We’re still suffering from inflation and the prices of rent are horrible in this area and we can’t afford to buy houses because the interest rates are so high, the housing prices are high, gas is high. We used to be able to give out eggs but they’re so expensive.”

Food recipients are not required to explain why they are seeking help but they often do, DeMar said.

“Sometimes they’ll just share personal events with us, troubles they are going through. But normally we don’t ask them and we don’t require that,” she said. “They say we’re a blessing or it helps them greatly. They always say ‘Thank you so much for what you do, it’s great for the community.’”

Individuals must provide an ID and fill out government emergency food-assistance forms to receive the food, she said.

One bag of donated food goes to each family. Government food bags — purchased at a discounted rate from United Food Bank — are also given, she said.

All that is donated to a family on a recent Friday was listed on the back of a door at the food bank: the TEFAP bag or bags; frozen meat, a bag of donated food, milk, bread, sweets, cereal, peanut butter, miscellaneous vegetables and fruit, juice, pizza sauce and powdered milk. There were also 42 turkeys available for large families.

“Based on the family size, they get one, two, three or five bags,” DeMar said. “We need a local address but ... it doesn’t have to match their driver’s license, which means they can be snowbirds, they can be from other places. We don’t discriminate against that and if they are homeless or unhoused, we don’t enter them in the system at all and they can come as many times they need to.”

Few individuals who identity themselves as homeless or unhoused have been coming to the Gold Canyon UMC Food Bank, she said.

“I don’t really know why. Maybe they’re getting pushed out or maybe they’re going more to the Superstition (Community) Food Bank” or Genesis soup kitchen in Apache Junction, DeMar said.

Food bank operations

Volunteers know when a vehicle has pulled up to the west door of the Gold Canyon UMC Food Bank for a food distribution when a sensor rings and alerts them of its presence.

On a recent Friday, volunteers held umbrellas while walking outside in the rain to lean in and speak to a driver, check if they previously applied for assistance and determine how many people are in the family. A cart with several bags of food was wheeled outside and loaded into the vehicle. The vehicle left and another pulled in.

This is repeated year-round, rain or shine, 9 a.m.-noon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the food bank, a mission of the nearby Gold Canyon United Methodist Church, where families or individuals can receive food twice a month. Food donations are accepted at the same time through a door to the south of the building.

On average, 28 vehicles will pull up to receive food on any distribution day of three hours.

“Like today, seeing three lined up out there in the rain is not something I expected. I thought it was going to be a slow day. It’s hard to figure,” said Larry Caywood, food bank employee and co-manager.

Eight Gold Canyon volunteers worked with Caywood at the food bank on that recent Friday morning. Some accepted and sorted donations by expiration date, and others packed grocery bags with a set “recipe” of donated and bought food, stocked freezers and refrigerators or took the donated food out to the waiting vehicles.

Noreen Carlozzi has volunteered at the food bank since 2010.

“I love it,” she said. “I have a heart for the poor and hungry.”

Fifteen years ago the food bank was in a small space at the church and later moved to the old Red Sage restaurant building it is at now.

“We did start over across the street in a closet — that was before my time. Then they went into the church right next door to it and we had a room,” Carlozzi said. “I think we came over here in ‘16 or ‘17.”

Aileen Joyce has volunteered at the food bank for seven years.

“I enjoy it. I love it and it’s needed. I also volunteer at church but the food bank — I fell into it and I haven’t left,” she said. “Someone told me about it and I said, ‘OK, I’ll go look’ and that was it.”

Winter resident Ollie Peterson, a retired dietitian, has volunteered at the food bank for three or four years.

“I like to volunteer, I like to be busy, I like to give back to the community,” she said.

Volunteer John Bishop took down a cardboard box after adding donated vegetables to plastic bags.

“In this back room basically we’re putting together food bags from donations and also things that are purchased by the food bank for distribution — regular items like milk, bread, meats that are frozen. So we’re trying to keep them supplied up front,” he said. “It’s pretty well organized. I was pretty taken with it when I got here.”

Bishop started volunteering about a year ago.

“I wanted to give something back,” he said.

Tim and Becky McGrath, volunteering for the first time on that recent Friday, gathered food for bags.

“Giving back to the community — my wife and I, we just think that’s something special we all need to consider if you can,” Tim McGrath said. “Packing up, sorting foods as they come in, and packing up based on the ‘recipe’ or the schedule over here on the side of the wall.”

“We live in the area here and always like to give back, just to help in the communities,” Becky McGrath said. “Back in Indiana if there was a tornado that would come through we’d go and buy a pallet of water and take it (to charity) or we’d go and pick up branches and clean up the mess the tornado has done. So we try something a little bit every year to just take care of somebody else. Because I know we’ll need it, if anything drastic would happen we’d appreciate that.”

Crystal Knight is a customer care volunteer trained by United Food Bank and helps maintain the database for the federal TEFAP program.

The TEFAP application for benefits includes a section where the individual certifies their gross household income is equal to or below the federal poverty level, and asks for name, date of birth, number of people in the household and other information.

When Knight fist started volunteering for the food bank, she bagged food and took it out to the vehicles.

“I enjoy it. I volunteered for things ever since I was a teenager,” she said. “So when we moved here, I was new to the community and I was looking for a place to volunteer and I ran across the volunteer manager at the time at the coffee shop so he brought me in so I’ve been doing it for about 10 years.”

When it’s not raining, a table is set up outside the building with bags of food and sometimes other non-food-related donations, Knight said.

“We have people who donate books for the children and so we put this out there too. And this is managed by one of our volunteers,” she said.

A total of 45 individuals volunteer at the food bank, DeMar said.

“We do have enough right now but I’d say the need is greater in the summer time when the snowbirds go away,” she said.

To volunteer, send an email to FoodBank.GCUMC@gmail.com.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.