Grand Canyon Food Pantry, Inc.

The Grand Canyon Food Pantry, Inc. will strive to provide supplemental food to the food insecure who live and work in the Grand Canyon. It will do this by providing a wide variety of food along with education on good nutrition.

A Brief History of the Grand Canyon Food Pantry, Inc.

In March 2017 Chief Matt Vandzura and Mike Scott met to discuss food insecurity in the Grand Canyon Village. The Chief explained the need for a Pantry: at that time 50% of GUSD students were eligible for subsidized lunch. That summer the GC Community Church sponsored a free lunch program at the GC Recreation Center on Mondays and Thursdays during June and July. During the last two weeks of July we partnered with the St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance to serve Kids Cafe lunches Monday through Friday.
In the summer of 2018 the group that became the Food Pantry served free lunches five days a week at Kaibab Learning Center, the Rec. Center and the Tusayan Sport Complex. Each of these groups supported the effort by training their staffs to meet the AZ Department of Economic Security and Federal Department of Agriculture requirements, along with storing the food in the freezers and refrigerators that St. Mary's provided. The program won the Regional Summer Sunshine Award for reaching Rural, Tribal and /or Under-served Communities.

In December 2018 we formed the Grand Canyon Emergency Food Pantry working with St. Mary's to provide food during the lapse in appropriations by the Federal Government. Once again St. Mary's was the backbone of the operation providing several tons of food. Ceara Chirovski and Lauren Tomlinson of St. Mary's Food Bank provided support and arranged for food deliveries during the emergency food bank operations. Their ongoing training and advice training and advice was extremely helpful. The National Park Service donated warehouse space and detailed workers to deliver the stored food to the Recreation Center, our temporary Pantry. Xanterra loaned freezers and refrigerators along with donating over 1,000 pounds of chicken. During the seven weeks of the lapse we provided food to residents and workers. The Emergency Pantry distributed over 29,000 pounds of food, much of it donated by other food banks and churches in Coconino and Mohave Counties.

We offered three communal 'soup & talk' meals that the Park Service used as a vehicle to communicate with Park employees. Our Public Heath officer, Don Hoeschele, checked us for food safety. The School provided soup for one meal, IMAX for the second, and the Squire Inn for the third. The Recreation Center provided the space and local volunteers served the meals.

The need caused by this lapse in appropriations convinced us that we should become a permanent Food Pantry.

In January 2019 the Emergency Pantry formed an Arizona not-for-profit corporation and filed for 501(c)(3) tax status, which was granted later in the year. We filed to be an Arizona Qualifying Charitable Organization, which was granted in December. A Board of Directors, with its membership drawn from various stakeholders in the community, held its first meeting in February 2019. Also in February Chief Vandzura offered the old jail and three storage sheds for our use. We had looked closely at the Fred Harvey gas station on Center Rd., but the build-out costs of close to $500,000 to bring it up to historical preservation standards seemed excessive for our needs.

The Board consists of representatives of major stakeholders in the Community: Xanterra Corporation, Delaware North, Paul Revere Transportation, Northern Arizona Healthcare, Coconino County, the GC Conservancy, public representatives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and ex-officio non voting NPS representation. Membership has fluctuated widely but continues to represent a cross section of the community.

The Grand Canyon Village is somewhat unique. Comprising about 3,200 people in summer and 2,500 January through March, it is located within the Grand Canyon National Park. It has a school district, bank, grocery store, churches, and clinic along with the hotels, restaurants, and amenities to serve visitors. All the community members live in rental properties, trailers, RV's, or dormitories: the level of your job determines the size of your rental or the space where you can hook up your RV. The census bureau estimates the poverty rate in the Village at 12.4%, but private firms place that number closer to 28%. About half of the school population is eligible for free or reduced price lunches. The village is at least 70 miles from city services like supermarkets and department stores: one in four residents do not have an automobile.

Returning to the story of the Pantry, we received a Special Use Permit from the Park Service in June 2019 which
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allowed us to operate. The Pantry is a total volunteer organization...