Food insecurity is a concern for many in Sedona and the Verde Valley, including senior citizens, working families, the working poor and homeless residents. Numerous organizations, both reglious and secular, have stepped in to address the need and provide food for individuals and families.
When the summer ends and the temperatures dip, the demand for food assistance for its residents increases, according to Sedona Community Food Bank Executive Director Cathleen Healy-Baiza.
“A good amount of our clients leave for the summer, when it’s crazy hot, and then they come back in the fall. We see the surge in September,” Healy-Baiza said.
“For example, last week, we saw 202 households,” Healy-Baiza said on Wednesday, Sept. 25. “This morning, we were open for four hours, and we assisted 133 families.”
Food distributions take place every Wednesday from 8:30 to 11:45 a.m. and 3:15 to 5:15 p.m. During the summer, Healy-Baiza said, the food bank typically serves between 150 and 160 families, but this year they were averaging between 170 and 180 families. “We’ve just never really slowed down to what it used to be,” Healy-Baiza said.
She also attributed the increase in demand to the food bank’s relocation to a new and more conveniently-reachable facility at 30 Inspirational Drive in 2023.
The food bank’s annual See’s Candy Wagon sale, which typically raises between $10,000 and $12,000, will run from Nov. 8 until Thanksgiving and again from Dec. 6 through 24 this year.
“We’re starting our coat collection, which we call the Big Give, and we give out winter coats at the Monday night supper starting the first week in December,” Healy-Baiza said.
Residents can also support the food bank by contributing to the Verde Valley Neighborhood Food Project, which collects monthly food donations from residents.
“We have another pickup day on Dec. 14, and that is a Verde Valley-wide food collection,” Healy-Baiza said. “In the morning, [donors] take that bag and they put it out in their front yard, near their front door, mailbox. Then the neighborhood coordinator picks up those donations.”
The food collected is given to the Sedona Community Food Bank, the Sedona Area Homeless Alliance, St. Vincent de Paul Sedona’s food pantry, Project Fill the Need and the Verde Valley School’s food pantry program.
For more information about the Sedona Community Food Bank, visit SedonaFoodBank.org or call (928) 204-2808.
St. Vincent de Paul
“Our clients are about 50% Hispanic, 50% Anglo,” St. Vincent de Paul grant writer Andrew Brearley said. “We have all age ranges. I mean, you saw a 2-year-old child over there just now, and we have older men who are maybe 70 years old, so we cover everybody.”
Brearley said that the demand sometimes exceeds the weekly supply of donations, which include 2,000 pounds of food bimonthly from the Neighborhood Food Program.
“That’s why we have a shopper designated,” St. Vincent de Paul client worker Maureen Koza said. “After we close on Thursday, and then they go out and purchase additional supplies, so that when we open next Thursday, we’ll have a moderate amount of those new items. Nobody gets turned away, and everybody gets food, but they sometimes may not get the exact item they want.”
Project Fill the Need
Project Fill the Need is a food pantry based at the shuttered Big Park Community School in the Village of Oak Creek. It is open on the last Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is available to anyone living in Sedona or the Verde Valley.
It was formed in September 2021 and has been averaging 40 to 50 clients each month.
“We’ve been at the Big Park School since inception,” President Kathy Wozniak said. “We started as a handful of friends creating a board, incorporating. We are a completely volunteer organization; nobody takes any compensation or salary. We are also 100% reliant on financial donations, as well as food donations from the Verde Valley Neighborhood Food Project and from local businesses where we have collection bins set up.”
The pantry’s donation bins are located at Northern Arizona Healthcare in Camp Verde, Northern Arizona Healthcare Medical Group in Sedona and Chase Bank, Snap Fitness, the Sedona Public Library branch and Clark’s Market in the VOC.
For more information, visit ProjectFillTheNeed.org.
Verde Valley School
“Service is one of our core values at Verde Valley School,” said Lindsay Wellman, the school’s pantry coordinator. “This program allows us to give back to the community through our own hard labor and efforts. We partner with the Green Bag Program and Christ Lutheran Church to obtain funding and goods for distribution.”
“We store the food here on campus,” Wellman explained. “The general public does not have access to our campus; instead, our ninth- and 10th-grade students participate in packing the meals as part of our service learning curriculum. They work with me every week to prepare the meals, which I then deliver to elementary schools.”
VVS’ Weekend Meal Program prepares meals for students at Desert Star Charter School in Cornville, Oak Creek Elementary School in Cornville and Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Cottonwood.
“We’ve grown dramatically, even from last spring,” Wellman said. “So as of last spring, we were delivering 80 meals per week, and so we’ve gone up almost 50% this year [to 117]. And we are in the process of looking for additional support that we can use to be able to sustain the program.”
Christ Lutheran Church
Christ Lutheran Church partners with several local food pantries to support those in need. This year their annual auction, Hands Healing Hunger, raised $168,618 for emergency food providers. The church is planning for the 16th edition of the fundraiser in 2025.
“The auction will open on Sunday, Feb. 16, and close on Sunday, March 2,” Pastor Dave Brandfass said. The closing day of Hands Healing Hunger will also include a live auction and celebration starting at 4 p.m.
For more information, contact Brandfass at DavidB@ChristSedona.org or at (928) 282-1022.
Monday Night Supper
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church hosts a Monday night supper for those in need each week from 5 to 6 p.m.
“The free Monday evening Sedona community suppers at St. Andrew’s provide a much-needed hot meal for some, a place to meet friends weekly for others and the first half of Monday-supper-and-a-movie [at the Sedona Public Library across the street] to those enjoying a night on the town,” the church’s calendar stated. “Several nonprofits support St. Andrew’s in making and serving meals, and parishioners enjoy the fellowship of working together and meeting Sedona residents and visitors they might not otherwise encounter. If you are interested in volunteering, or your group would like to host a supper, contact office@saint-andrews.org.”
Koza said that attendance is usually 40 to 50 and about 70 meals are served because many attendees take food home for their neighbors. While St. Andrew’s hosts the dinner every week, the responsibility for serving each meal rotates among other congregations and local organizations.
For additional information, contact Maureen Koza at (928) 203-0884.
Meals on Wheels
Sedona’s Meals on Wheels has been serving homebound seniors for four decades and the program celebrated its 40th anniversary on Sept. 28 The program runs five days a week, delivering three-course meals to seniors who are unable to cook or shop for themselves because of health or material limitations.
“In 1984, Margaret Flynn and a friend started the Meals on Wheels program out of their homes, providing a much-needed service to the local community,” the Sedona Community Center’s website stated. “This project soon grew to such proportions that they could no longer prepare the meals in their homes even with the donations provided by local stores … In 1985 the Meals on Wheels program was adopted and still resides with us at the center.”
Meals on Wheels serves between 90 and 95 meals daily, and every meal includes a protein, two sides, a salad, a dessert and milk if desired. Meals are delivered by a group of 35 volunteer drivers.
“We don’t have a strict price on it, you can just give us a call, and we can always talk about options,” said the center’s marketing manager, Kristen Paduchowski. “We call it an ‘independent contribution’ because we have funding from the city of Sedona, so we are able to talk about options.”
For more information about Meals on Wheels, visit SCCSedona.org or the Sedona Community Center at 2615 Melody Lane or call (928) 282-2834.
Manzanita Outreach
Residents who are unable to travel or to find a person to collect food on their behalf from Manzanita Outreach’s weekly food distribution in Cottonwood have the option to receive home delivery on the fourth Saturday of the month between 8 and 10 a.m. For more information, visit mohelp.org/sedona-proxy-delivery or call (928) 300-0276.
“Everything has grown,” Manzanita Outreach Executive Director Ben Burke said. “It’s about eight times as big now compared to the first couple of months.” Manzanita started offering this service in late 2022 and the home delivery program now serves 309 people in Sedona.
The Sedona Community Food Bank also has a homebound client program that delivers on the second Monday of each month between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. For more information, visit sedonafoodbank.org/programs.html.
Manzanita Outreach provides a list of different assistance programs available throughout Yavapai County online at mohelp.org. Many of the organizations listed here take applications for volunteers at VolunteerSedona.com.
