Program
Food Bank and Community Pantries
Community food drives and donor funds feed an amazing, giant-scale collection and distribution warehouse, where our quality control staff inspects and processes truckloads of donated food every day before it's sent to our kitchen and food pantries.
The Society of Home Visits When Times are Tough
Unique from traditional food banks where families stand in line for a food box to take home, we honor each person’s dignity and privacy by taking the food and help to those in need. Specially trained volunteers, called Vincentians, operate and run over 80 community food pantries out of Catholic churches in central and northern Arizona. Each location answers calls for help and serves its community–it’s truly an effort organized for neighbors to help neighbors. In addition to food boxes, volunteer teams often sit down with the families to hear their stories, navigate additional needs, offer a prayer, and help to connect additional resources when appropriate. Many families share that just as important as the food and resources, they find hope and healing through these meaningful interactions.
By the numbers
Services
Our central food bank is the engine that powers our community pantries. Thanks to grocery partners, generous donors and hundreds of community food drives, our food bank receives and processes over 3.37 million pounds of food to distribute to our network of community food pantries. Canned sources of protein like tuna, chicken and soups are especially needed year-round.
Our community food pantries are historically called “Conferences of Charity” in the tradition of St. Vincent de Paul. Based out of Catholic churches, each responds to needs within its neighborhood regardless of the individual’s faith tradition, beliefs and background. They are 100% volunteer-run and are true grassroots efforts of neighbors helping neighbors through food boxes, thrift store gift cards, rent and utility bill assistance. Visit our Help Center for a map of all food pantry locations and service boundaries.
Two Saturdays a month start with a free, early morning farmers market at St. Vincent de Paul thanks to Food Reclamation Manager April Good, who found a way to take excess food from our warehouse and farms and deliver it to the community. This distribution operates like a drive-thru giveaway and helps get food every second and fourth Saturday to people who may not necessarily partake in or qualify for other SVdP programs.
Location
Learn more about our food bank locations around the Valley:
Volunteer Opportunities
At SVdP, 95% of our workforce are volunteers-like YOU. We believe that we can accomplish more when we all do it together. Thank you for sharing your skills, time, and heart with us. Thank you for being part of the family.
