STATEWIDE (Feed Arizona Children) – Arizona’s Family has once again teamed up with Albertsons and Safeway stores and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to help feed the nearly 270,000 Arizona children living with food insecurity. They’re going to bed hungry, waking up hungry, and going to school hungry because their families struggle to put food on the table.
“This is a really hard time for families,” said Shannon Clancy, the CEO of St. Vincent de Paul. “With our rising housing costs and cost of gas, cost of food, families are really struggling and making impossible choices.” For some, it might come down to paying the rent or ensuring the family has enough to eat.
“What’s happened over the past few years is families that are working really hard, who are just struggling to meet the needs of their children, are having trouble,” Clancy said.
“Many people are struggling,” explained Nancy Keane of Albertsons Safeway. “We have folks who are just trying to bridge the gap month by month, so they turn to our feeding partners – St. Vincent de Paul, St. Mary’s Food Bank – and they ask for that assistance. That’s where these funds are going. Every penny we raise goes back to our nonprofit partners.”
Some of those other partners include United Food Bank, Kitchen on the Street, and Desert Mission Food Bank.
“About 1 in 6 Arizona families are struggling right now with food insecurity. That’s unacceptable, and we’re determined to bring it to an end,” Keane said.
You can help when you shop at any of the 140 Safeway and Albertsons stores throughout the state this month. It could not be any easier.
Find an Albertsons near you | Find a Safeway near you
“You’re going to be prompted at checkout, ‘Would you like to donate to end hunger in America?’” Keane explained, showing the pin pad at the register. “You can choose $1, $3, $5, or other, and we have many customers who have donated larger amounts.”
The amount you select will be added to your grocery bill, and that’s that. Whether you donated $1 or $100, you just helped an Arizona family in need. It all adds up.
“We’re so grateful to our shoppers,” Keane said. “Without their generosity, we would not be able to support our local food banks, our wonderful partners like St. Vincent De Paul.”
“Families are so grateful to be able to come to a place like St. Vincent de Paul and other places in the community that can get them the food they need so that they can move forward with their lives,” Clancy said.
In Arizona, we take care of our own, especially when times are tough.
“We invite the whole community to come and be part of this,” Clancy said. We all see that need out there, and it touches our hearts to think about a child who might be going hungry today or tonight when they go to bed. Each one of us can do something special and feed Arizona’s children.”
If you’re one of the many people who now does all your shopping online or you have your groceries delivered, you can still help. Click here to make an online donation to the Albertsons Companies Foundation. You can use either PayPal or your debit or credit card.