Today is the last day HART Pantry is taking donations for their annual Christmas Bag Drive to give to teens facing hunger and homelessness in the west Valley.

Despite an increase of teens in need and a lack of supply, HART Pantry is on track to make 230 bags this holiday season.

Peoria-based Helping At-Risk Teens Pantry — HART Pantry — provides weekly snack and weekend food bags for teens who do not have access to food when they are not in school.

During the holiday season, HART Pantry, 8456 W Sanna St.,  collects donations for their annual Christmas Bag Drive including clothes, toiletries and gift cards. The Christmas bags are sent out to high schools across the west Valley to teens who may be facing homelessness, hunger and might not get presents during the holidays.

Food pantry volunteers will put together the donations and assemble the bags during the first weeks of December.

“We want to be the adults that say you are not forgotten,” said Ruth Langford, executive director and founder of HART Pantry.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of teens asking for assistance that has continued into 2021.

Langford said that in 2019, the number of students asking for assistance was about 250. Now that number is about 400.
Along with an increase in need, disruptions in the supply chain are putting strains on HART Pantry.

Rising prices and shortage of products have forced the nonprofit to find different ways to collect supplies. Usually, the pantry will order in bulk from companies including Sam’s Club, Walmart and Dollar Tree, but due to high demand, companies are limiting how much customers can buy.

Now, since they are not allowed to buy in bulk, volunteers are having to buy items off the shelf. Essential nonperishable items for the weekend bags such as bread and crackers are in short supply, but Langford still finds a way.

“We’re asking people that instead of sending us a check for $25, go buy bread because you can get it as well as we can,” Langford said.

She added she has not had to tell a kid no when asking for assistance and is confident the kids will still get their weekend and Christmas bags due to support from the community and adapting to the supply chain disruptions.

“If we can’t buy crackers, we’ll find something to substitute, but the kids will get their food... We will get food with the highest nutritional value we can find for their meals,” she said.

HART Pantry is also included in the missions of several churches in the west Valley which means they receive donations regularly from the churches along with food collected from food drives.

HART Pantry also receives grants every year from the cities of Surprise and Peoria, and the rest of the revenue is from members of the community.

About 60% of the charity’s revenue is from corporate grants.

HART Pantry also often receives contributions from Deep Within Rehab, an organization that assists men with addiction issues or who are homeless by giving them access to a safe living environment as well as job opportunities.

Cindy Humes, director of Deep Within Rehab, said “If we get anything in excess, we just bring it over there...A lot of times we get bread donated from a food bank and we just bring it over there. Sometimes they get big cans they can’t pack in backpacks and so they’ll share that with us.”

Humes also said when HART Pantry gets big donations from Sam’s Club, Deep Within Rehab will send a few of the younger residents to help them load supplies.

At HART Pantry, none of the officers receive compensation and rely solely on volunteers.

The majority of the money goes to groceries, with a food budget of about $110,000, she added.

HART Pantry is currently taking donations of $25 gift cards to Walmart or Target, reusable water bottles, blankets, socks, soap, a bag of candy, and more to put together their Christmas Bags. Langford said their biggest need is $25 gift cards from Walmart or Target, which are given to the teens to buy themselves a new pair of shoes.

For Langford, the importance of the Christmas bags is to let kids know they have someone looking out for them.

Raymond S. Kellis High School counselor Lindsay McClone has 11 students who receive resources from HART Pantry.
McClone said some of the teens’ parents aren’t able to provide a typical Christmas for their children. The Christmas bags are a pleasant surprise for them during the holidays.

“Some of these kids, especially the older ones... take pride in taking care of their families, but it’s nice to see them smirk and perk up when these big bags come to them,” McClone said. “It’s nice to feel that warmth of having something under the Christmas tree when it wasn’t expected.”

Editor’s note: Sam Ballesteros is a student at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.