Fry’s Food Stores showed their commitment to assisting those affected by natural disaster in Arizona by donating $20,000 to the Association of Arizona Food Banks (AAFB) for disaster relief. Fry’s presented the check at a press conference on June 24 where they also made a donation to the American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter’s Fire Hurts-Red Cross Helps campaign.
“This generous donation will ensure we are best able to respond quickly and efficiently when natural disaster strikes,” said Ginny Hildebrand, president and CEO of AAFB. “These funds will help assist one or more of our member food banks in their response to a disaster situation. We’re very proud to have Fry’s Food Stores as a committed community partner.”
As a member of Arizona Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (ArizonaVOAD), AAFB helps coordinate the food bank response to disaster, including ordering, securing and transporting food, water and other resources to affected areas. When a disaster occurs in the service area of one of AAFB’s member food banks—who collectively serve all 15 Arizona counties—they rely on AAFB and ArizonaVOAD to assist them in meeting the needs of individuals, households and communities affected.
In a disaster, food banks are often one of the last agencies to stop providing support and assistance, because the need for food is ongoing. Therefore resources are stretched out over a long period of time until full recovery can be accomplished, further taxing food banks which are presently seeing record demand for services due to the uncertain economy. These funds from Fry’s ensure resources are readily available in event of a disaster that taxes the food bank network in Arizona.
Fry’s Food Stores is a longtime supporter of food banks throughout Arizona by regularly donating food through store pick-up programs. In 2010, Fry’s 121 stores in Arizona donated the equivalent of more than 5.2 million meals to Arizona food banks, and it is expected that a similar amount will be provided to food banks in 2011.
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