A week from Christmas, St. Mary's Food Bank still in of need donations

PHOENIX (FOX 10) - During a season that fills many hearts, St. Mary's Food Bank also fills many bellies.

"We have holiday food boxes for folks," Jerry Brown said. "We distribute about 45,000 of those every year and you can add another 10 to 15,000 of those for seniors, so you're talking about almost 60,000 boxes that we do during the month of December."

The food bank doesn't just feed families during the holidays, they also need enough donations leftover to start the new year.

"We still have 800 families that come in a day just through food bank locations and we have hundreds of those around the Valley, not all of them as large as this one, but we're talking about 800 families, times five a day... that's 4,000 families every week that are coming through looking for this kind of food," Brown said.

Non-perishable items food items like cereal, canned vegetables, peanut butter and proteins like tuna are still needed.

St. Mary's says there are many ways to help others, while also helping yourself.

"2018 isn't over, there's still time," Brown said. "You can do something on your taxes to help out. If you're making an $800 dollar donation through the Arizona tax credit, you get that $800 dollars back -- 5,000 pounds of food comes to the food bank."

St. Mary's Food Bank
https://www.firstfoodbank.org/