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Valley food banks dealing with major turkey shortage

Tom Tingle/The Arizona Republic

Sam Rowton moves one of the last pallets of turkeys to the freezer at St. Mary's Food Bank on Monday.

Susie Steckner
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2003 04:46 PM


One of the Valley's largest food banks is nearly out of turkeys for the Thanksgiving holiday and other agencies are seeing shortages as well, which could leave needy families without a holiday meal.

St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix planned to distribute 7,000 emergency food boxes filled with turkey and trimmings like cranberry sauce and vegetables, as well as other non-holiday staples. But by midday Monday, the agency had given out all the turkeys it had, roughly 3,000.

"If we don't get enough turkeys to go out in our boxes, then we're going to have to put alternative items in there," said St. Mary's spokeswoman Cynde Cerf. "For now, the plan is chicken. But if we run out of those chickens . . . .the worst possible case scenario would be tuna and hot dogs."

This is the first year in recent history that St. Mary's has run out of turkeys before Thanksgiving. The food bank expects to distribute the equivalent of 100,000 meals between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Westside Food Bank, which has locations in Phoenix, Glendale, Avondale and Surprise, has seen about a 50 percent drop in turkey donations this year over last, said spokesman David Seigler.

To top that off, the agency's thrift store in Surprise was burglarized last week and someone made off with $1,700. The store doesn't normally keep cash overnight but with the holiday rush, the day's earnings didn't get deposited in the bank.

"Those are dollars we use every day to meet the need of our clients," said Seigler.

Meantime, Mesa's United Food Bank is doling out the turkey and fixings as fast as donations come in. "We're not building any stockpile by any means," said the agency's chief executive officer Bob Evans.

Agencies and businesses are stepping up this week to help feed the Valley's hungry with several turkey drives on the schedule:


• 12 News Turkey Tuesday. It's the 10th year the station has teamed up with Bashas' and St. Vincent de Paul for the charitable event. St. Vincent's is seeing more working families than ever struggling to put food on the table and each day the agency distributes more than 3,000 meals to needy Arizonans. Shoppers can drop off frozen turkeys from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday at all Bashas' stores in the Valley, Flagstaff and Prescott. Shoppers also can make cash donations at all of the stores' check out registers.

• St. Mary's Food Bank, 2831 N. 31st Ave., at the drive-through from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdayand 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday. Donors will get a two-for-one coupon for Phoenix Coyotes tickets and a coupon for a free cookie at Cookies Amour.

• United Food Bank, 358 E. Javelina Ave., at the drive-through from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

• Westside Food Bank, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 4221 N. 43rd Ave., Phoenix; 5605 N. 55th Ave., Glendale; 405 E. Harrison St., Avondale; and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 13050 W. Elm St., Surprise. The agency is also accepting donations from 8 a.m. to noon Friday at the Surprise location.

• Desert Mission Food Bank, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 9229 N. Fourth St.; and 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. at John C. Lincoln Hospital - Deer Valley, 19829 N. 27th Ave., and John C. Lincoln Hospital - North Mountain, 250 E. Dunlap Ave.

• Trader Joe's stores are serving as drop-off locations for several Valley food banks.
• Donors also can log on to http://www.buyabird.org for information about buying a plush turkey toy for $15. Proceeds benefit Valley and state food banks, and The Association of Arizona Food Banks. Shoppers can designate which organization they want to support. Sales will help the needy throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Reach the reporter at susie.steckner@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7962.