Local Organizations Aim to Help Families Access Food During COVID

PHOENIX- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic families are struggling with not only a lack of food education but also lacking access to food; and different organizations across the valley, like Project Roots AZ, Borderlands Produce Rescue and Arizona State Universities Pitchfork Pantry are stepping in and trying to help.

Food insecurity and sufficiency is affecting families across the nation with 11.1% of households in the U.S. are struggling to put food on the table for their family due to lack of resources and 30.2% of families are suffering from food sufficiency according to the United Health Foundation.

Organizations like Project Roots AZ, a community garden in south Phoenix is hoping to make a change in the community by showing people how to grow their own food, “The food was not just any kind of food it was organically grown and I knew what was in the food, I knew where it came from, I knew I was a part of witnessing God water it and then myself watered it as well. And I think that is something that we overlook and I overlooked in my journey in life,” said Bridget Pettis, the co-founder of Project Roots AZ.

Pettis along with her partner Dionne Washington and Pettis’s cousin, Jessica Diamond started planting different fruits and vegetables in the half an acre garden in south Phoenix and have expanded their efforts to include education to members of the community with efforts such as the Kids Class Project, an initiative to show children how to grow their own food hosted at the garden as well as the Wellness Collective Project which incorporates free yoga classes also hosted at the garden to help people stay grounded. Pettis who is a yoga instructor of 15 years connected with other yoga instructors to create opportunities for people to join. “Found a way to collaborate with beautiful people in a like-minded way and just doing my part to help benefit the community,” said Pettis.

When it comes to produce, being able to afford good, clean and healthy fruits and vegetables have become more uncommon with on 10.4% of women in the United States eating three or more vegetables a day and two or more fruits a day and overweight and obese children between the ages of 10 and 17 rising to 32.1% in the U.S. according to the United Health Foundation. Borderlands Produce Rescue is hoping to change those statistics with their Produce On Wheels Without Waste program also known as P.O.W.W.O.W.

Borderlands Produce Rescue offers an affordable and educational way to access produce offering 70 pounds of produce for 12 dollars at select locations across Arizona once a week with their P.O.W.W.O.W program. “Our mission at P.O.W.W.O.W is to pay it forward and not only share it with our neighbors and family but also different organizations like churches and schools and spread the word so other people know about us,” said Yolanda Soto, Borderlands Produce Rescue President and CEO. Another way that Borderlands Produce Rescue gets its word out is through a newsletter that has information about what produce will be available at the locations that P.O.W.W.O.W will be at each week along with updates from the organization.

Borderlands Produce also provides opportunities to inmates to gain technical skills through a program called Arizona Department of Corrections Job Site and Arizona After which employs 11 to 12 inmates that help with everything from unloading tricks and sorting produce to packing the trucks that go out to the weekly P.O.W.W.O.W markets.

Borderlands Produce Rescue makes it a point to promote volunteerism, “All P.O.W.W.O.W sites are led by volunteers,” said Soto. “The volunteers help distribute the produce and help educate the people who are coming. People who visit POWWOW have maybe not had the opportunity to eat the kinds of vegetables.”

One of the locations that P.O.W.W.O.W. sets up at is Arizona State University West Campus, which is an opportunity for students to purchase a large amount of produce for an affordable price. However, according to a study done by researchers at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions in collaboration with the National Food Access and COVID Research Team, in a sample during the first four months of 2021, food insecurity rates in Arizona were higher at 28% compared to those reported in the year prior to the pandemic at 22%; the most significant food-related concern for Arizona households was affordability. With 22.2% of Phoenix student enrollment being undergraduate students and 5% being graduate or professional school students, according to the Census Bureau, the Arizona State University Pitchfork Pantry is another resource for Arizona State University students and the members of the Pitchfork Pantry who operate it are hoping to make a difference in student’s lives regarding access to food.

The Pitchfork Pantry that is a student-run pantry at Arizona State University, housed on the Tempe and Downtown campuses, has a mission to foster community engagement and promote health, well-being and sustainability for Arizona State University students. The pantry offers non-perishables for students and partners with Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank in Tempe and St. Mary’s Food Bank in Downtown Phoenix to provide a pre-packaged bag of fresh and non-perishable items at different pop-up food distributions.

Lindsay Pacheco, the director of the Pitchfork Pantry has been volunteering at food banks since she was ten years old and has a personal connection to food insecurity, “My mom suffered from food insecurity when she was a college student and she would make a pot of rice and beans for the week and that is what she would have for the week because she didn’t know there were resources available for her,” said Pacheco.

With the pandemic still in effect with the COVID-19 virus still going around, Project Roots AZ, Borderlands Produce Rescue and the Arizona State University Pitchfork Pantry are only a few of the organizations making food more accessible and affordable for people in need. “I believe that the most important thing for every human being, the basis is food,” said Soto.