DOUGLAS, Ariz. (KGUN) — Twenty food pantries across Cochise County are benefiting from a week-long food drive organized by the Cochise County Food Network.
Roughly 110 collection boxes have been placed throughout the region to help restock shelves that organizers say are running low across the county.
St. Vincent de Paul in Douglas is one of the participating pantries. It is now the only food pantry in Douglas since the Douglas Food Bank closed last summer. Volunteers say they are seeing more people come in for help and need the community's support to keep up with demand.
"We're only able to help as much as the community is able to help bolster us," Jamie Wu, a Vincentian with St. Vincent de Paul of Douglas, said.
She says the number of people seeking food assistance has been climbing.
"We're also seeing a huge rise in the number of friends that we're seeing who are presenting for food or food boxes or assistance things like that. So we're definitely seeing a rise in that that's not going the numbers are not trending down for that," Wu said.
Manuel Cruz, a volunteer with St. Vincent de Paul of Douglas, said he has watched the need grow firsthand over the years.
"Within the last maybe seven or eight years, I've seen an influx of different homeless people that I encounter here almost on a weekly basis. You see new faces out there in the streets," Cruz said.
Wendee Grinde, coordinating director for the Cochise County Food Network, said the drive is about more than collecting cans — it is a community-wide effort to address food insecurity across southeastern Arizona.
"It feels more like a movement than just a food drive," Grinde said.
She says cuts and changes to food assistance programs have pushed more residents to seek help from local pantries before the end of the month.
"The people who need to be fed in our communities are our neighbors, and so we're seeing a higher impact in the pantries of neighbors coming in looking for supplemental food," Grinde said.
She said pantry shelves need to be fully stocked to meet the growing need.
"These pantry shelves should be so full in order to help everyone here," Grinde said.
The food drive runs through Friday. Grinde said the event gives community members a straightforward way to make a difference.
"People in our community, they care and they do want to help and support, and they don't always know how, and so having a food drive makes it simple," Grinde said.
The food collected will stay in the city it was collected in, except some food collected in Sierra Vista will be disbursed to smaller communities like Sunsites.
To see where collection boxes are located, click here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
