Midwest Food Bank tripled its Arizona outreach starting in 2020, and it has continued to provide nearly $60 million worth of food every year since.

An influx of food donations in the wake of COVID-19 enabled the Arizona division of Midwest Food Bank to jump from distributing $17.8 million worth of food and hygiene supplies in 2019 to $66 million in 2020. A rise in job layoffs created the need.

“Farmers were farming, but restaurants weren’t buying,” said Merilee Baptiste, executive director of the Arizona division. “And people were hungry.”

Since 2020, the Arizona division has consistently distributed COVID-level supplies, and the organization has seen steady revenue growth on the national level, Baptiste said.

Midwest Food Bank’s total revenue in 2020 was $419 million. That figure gradually increased, reaching $500 million in 2023. Midwest Food Bank became the largest independent food bank in the nation in the past couple of years, Baptiste said.

These numbers do not appear to be decreasing any time soon, and Midwest Food Bank has acquired nearly 300 agency partners in the Valley to keep up, Baptiste said. These partnerships are how the food is actually distributed — Midwest Food Bank delivers the food to churches and organizations that put the food into the hands of the communities they serve.

One agency partner of Midwest Food Bank’s Arizona division is Andre House, a hospitality organization for people in Phoenix without housing.

“This food is a lifeline of sustenance for our homeless guests as they transition out of their current state into a better place,” said Michael Murphy, director of mission advancement at Andre House.

Other agency partners of Midwest Food Bank in Arizona include City Hope, Phoenix Rescue Mission, Resurrection Street Ministry, Maricopa Pantry and St. Anne’s Friends of the Needy.

Back in 2020, businesses and schools that were buying from farmers nearly ceased their purchasing routines when COVID hit, and that food had nowhere to go. At the same time, people across the country were losing their jobs and the need for food was rapidly increasing, Baptiste said.

Baptiste said food started to flood into its warehouse in Gilbert. In fiscal year 2020-21 alone, Midwest Food Bank supported more than 25,000 residents each month.

Part of what drives the continually high distribution numbers is the organization’s status as an independent food bank, Baptiste said. Even though this removes its access to federal funding, it makes the food more accessible to those in need because there is less red tape.

Midwest Food Bank operates primarily through private grants and the Arizona tax credit, Baptiste said.

Another critical element to the Arizona division’s growth has been the increase in volunteerism in Gilbert and beyond, said Joanna Guzman, marketing and communications officer for the town of Gilbert. About 4,600 volunteers served at the food bank in 2020, and those numbers have remained above the pre-COVID averages.

The food bank also utilized some innovative solutions to the problem of oversupply. It used the National Guard and built a satellite campus in Tucson.

“More than anything, we would like to be out of business,” Baptiste said. “We just don't want to have people be hungry.”

Cassie Kresin is a student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.