St. Mary's Food Bank trucks much-needed supplies to Oak Ridge Fire

St. Mary's Food Bank aids Oak Ridge Fire victims

St. Mary's Food Bank is sending much-needed supplies to those affected by the Oak Ridge Fire. FOX 10's Irene Snyder has the story.

PHOENIX - St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix is doing its part to help the victims of the Oak Ridge Fire burning on the Navajo Nation.

A tractor-trailer is headed five and a half hours up north to bring much-needed supplies to the front lines of the fire.

A St. Mary's Food Bank truck on the way to deliver supplies to the Oak Ridge Fire burning on the Navajo Nation on July 1, 2025.

What they're saying:

Jerry Brown of St. Mary's Food Bank says they got the call on Monday afternoon, and had the truck ready to go by Tuesday morning.

"This stuff is already on-hand. It's stuff that we have ready to go. Emergency food boxes. We distribute about a hundred thousand of them every month. So there's a couple of hundred, probably four to five hundred food boxes on there, for folks who need it," Brown said.

The supplies are being sent to people who needed to evacuate, and also to first responders battling the fire.

"A full tractor-trailer truck full of water, Gatorade, emergency food boxes, ready-to-go snacks, bakery items, peanut butter. For not only evacuees that are being displaced from their homes, but for firefighters to take with them on the line. We want to make sure we're taking care of everyone, keeping those guys hydrated," Brown said.

Brown says this is their biggest shipment of the year.

"We haven't had any disaster problems. We've had big ones in the past, some of the biggest fires up in northern Arizona, sometimes in a neighboring state when they ask us as one of the biggest food banks in the region. As a first responder, we're always ready. We always have our protocols to go through. It just takes us a couple of hours to fill up a trip like this," he explained.

After this, the food bank is really in need of more donations, especially water, which they need in the Valley, too.

"Most of the supplies are dwindling because of the hot weather. We had a very hot June, a lot of temperatures in the 114-117 range. We've been handing out water like crazy to our industry partners, we've been purchasing water to try to make up that need," he said.