A Road Trip Through Arizona's Food Banks

In the days after Thanksgiving 2025, the Arizona Community Foundation's (ACF) Chief Executive Officer, Anna María Chávez along with Kim Covington, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at ACF, and a team of ACF leaders loaded up and drove across Arizona for three days. They stopped at 21 food banks and community food pantries, from the state's largest cities to its most remote corners, handing out checks ranging from $3,500 to $25,000 on behalf of ACF donors.
The people running these organizations—many of them volunteers, most of them stretching every dollar—are the ones showing up every day to make sure their neighbors don’t go hungry. ACF came to show up for them.

Arizona has a long history of showing up for its neighbors. The world's first food bank was founded right here, in Phoenix, in 1967. Nearly six decades later, that tradition is still very much alive.

What Kim Covington Found in Quartzsite

One of those stops was Quartzsite—a small desert town where Kim Covington drove the streets looking for a grocery store and found none. The Quartzsite Food Bank serves a population that is 70 to 80% senior citizens, many of whom depend on it as one of their only sources of food.

"I drove around and found no grocery stores, so the food bank is one of their only sources of food," Covington said. "I am saddened that so many seniors are really struggling, but happy that we could provide even a small measure of support."

Quartzsite is not unique. The Arizona Food Bank Network estimates nearly 1 million Arizonans are at risk of hunger—a number that has risen as much as 20% in the past year as food prices have increased. Nationally, 9 out of 10 counties with the highest hunger rates are rural. In communities like Quartzsite, food banks aren't a supplement to other options. They are the only option.

Donors Help Make It Possible

ACF donors directed their giving toward hunger relief, making the 21 stops possible. The results exceeded what anyone had expected.

"The challenge is still great, but the generosity of our donors in this moment has surpassed all my expectations," said ACF President and CEO Anna María Chávez.

Building Something Bigger

The road trip was just one visible expression of a much broader statewide commitment led in partnership with the Office of Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs. Through this collaboration, ACF participated in regular strategy briefings that included real-time data and insights from State Budget Director Ben Henderson, helping inform a coordinated philanthropic response to emerging needs across Arizona.

Building on that partnership, ACF recently convened the first Funders Collaborative: Food Bank Ecosystem—bringing together President and CEO Anna Maria Chávez, Kim Covington, more than 30 Arizona food bank CEOs, and philanthropic leaders from across the state to align around solutions to rising food insecurity.

That convening was designed to move beyond conversation and into action. Together, funders rapidly mobilized more than $6 million to Arizona food banks at a critical moment, ensuring resources reached communities when they were needed most. The collaborative reflects ACF’s role as both convener and catalyst—leveraging trusted partnerships, real-time data, and statewide relationships to accelerate coordinated action for Arizona families.

"In moments like this, we're not just sharing resources," Covington said. "We're strengthening a collective safety net that no single organization could build on its own."

Generosity Builds is a storytelling initiative from the Council on Foundations highlighting the ways charitable foundations show up as a nonpartisan force for good in our communities — from scientific breakthroughs to community childcare, veterans support, and disaster relief.