St. Mary’s Food Bank announced a $358,000 grant from Walmart Foundation and Feeding America as part of a continuing partnership to strengthen food banks and agency partners in rural communities and communities of color disproportionately affected by food insecurity.

St. Mary’s will use the funding to provide its 800+ agency partners in those areas with grocery rescue equipment ranging from refrigerated vans used to pick up food from area grocery stores and food warehouses to the installation of walk-in coolers and freezers at agency locations.

St. Mary’s has seen a huge increase in clients in both underserved urban and rural areas as inflation continues to overwhelm families and seniors who are having trouble putting food on the table, a press release notes. Nearly 2 million Arizonans are food insecure.

Milt Liu

“Building capacity in our network means bringing new partners to the table, adding new staff, procuring new equipment and inspiring more people to join the movement to end hunger,” Milt Liu, St. Mary’s Food Bank president and CEO, stated. “This generous grant adds up to a significant, meaningful increase in the amount of food we are making available in our community.”

The Retail Agency Capacity Building Grants were awarded to a total of 20 Feeding America partner food banks.

As Feeding America’s largest food donors, Walmart and Sam’s Club have donated more than 7.5 billion pounds of food since 2006.

St. Mary’s Food Bank is located at 2831 N. 31st Ave., in Phoenix. Serving nine of Arizona’s 15 counties, John van Hengel founded St. Mary’s, the world’s first food bank, in 1967.

Learn more at https://www.firstfoodbank.org/.