Food & Social Justice

Basic economic and nutritional security is essential for all people, with the right to have timely access to food as a nutritional and social justice issue. The financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 has devastated thousands of households throughout Arizona. Unemployment, underemployment , furloughs, salary reductions, and businesses closing have inflicted enormous cost on families, limiting their ability to access and purchase food. By now we’re all familiar with the numbers – 1 in 4 children, 1 in 5 adults, 1 in 7 seniors – of those living with poverty and hunger daily.
Given this situation, the Hunger 101 program is important because it educates the public about the issues surrounding hunger, the effects of hunger, and makes them aware of the tools to meet the challenge. One of those important tools are food drives, which provide an emotional lift to the contributors, as well as providing many of the essential items used to make up our Emergency Food Boxes.
St. Mary’s is in the front lines of the fight to provide food to those in need. As part of our mission to alleviate hunger, we distribute an average of 850 Emergency Food Boxes each day; we distribute food to nearly 600 agency sites throughout the state; and each day our Kids Cafe® distributes almost 3,000 “smiles” at after-school sites throughout the Valley. Those smiles, and yes, tears from the recipients are why we do what we do.