St. Mary's Food Bank

The CLP Missions Committee Liaison to Saint Mary’s Food Bank is Judy Mercy.

St. Mary's Food Bank’s mission is to help alleviate hunger through the gathering and distribution of food while encouraging self-sufficiency. It doesn’t take much to push a family into hunger, a job loss, an accident, or an illness. The people SMFB serves come from all walks of life. Hunger has many faces.  SMFB is open each day for families to receive groceries. They also fund school lunch programs throughout Arizona and provide free healthy meals to after-school programs to ensure our children are well fed. Volunteers help to deliver food to seniors and those with disabilities. SMFB sends semi-trucks filled with food boxes to provide nutritious meals to smaller distribution centers and tribal communities.  

SMFB also has training programs teaching technical and life skills for adults to gain employment in Warehousing or the Food Industry. Students gain life skills and learn about food service training, all while providing meals to those in need of food. They learn from other chefs and make meals for the Kids Cafe program, which provides more than one million meals to underserved children in after-school programs every year. 

The CLP Missions Committee makes a sizable donation each year to SMFB. In November, we hold a food drive and donate additional money from our designated offering from the Thanksgiving service. The Missions Committee also sponsors several volunteer opportunities to go to the distribution center to pack boxes or help load shopping baskets or vehicles with groceries. 

If you want to know more about St. Mary’s, go to their website at www.firstfoodbank.org