United Food Bank is the hunger-relief hub for Arizona's East Valley, covering Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, and Scottsdale plus Pinal County and a wide stretch of eastern Arizona from its Mesa headquarters. It is one of five regional food banks in the Arizona Food Bank Network and distributes more than 21 million pounds of food a year, about 49,000 meals a day, through roughly 150 partner agencies. Jason Reed became President and CEO in 2023. United Food Bank has served the region since 1983.
United Food Bank sources food at scale and distributes it through about 150 partner agencies across the East Valley and eastern Arizona, supplemented by its own programs. As one of five regional food banks in the Arizona Food Bank Network, it handles its own corner of a state too large for any single food bank to cover, leaving metropolitan Phoenix proper and western Arizona to partners like St. Mary’s Food Bank.
Jason Reed became President and CEO in 2023, arriving with nonprofit leadership experience in the Phoenix area, including a background at St. Vincent de Paul. He took over an organization serving one of the fastest-growing parts of the state, where rapid population growth has created food insecurity that the local safety net has struggled to keep pace with.
The service area runs from the East Valley suburbs of Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, and Scottsdale out through Pinal County and into eastern Arizona. The East Valley has grown explosively over the past two decades, and that growth has brought a distinctive kind of food insecurity: working families in new suburbs whose incomes do not stretch to cover rising housing and grocery costs.
Yes. United Food Bank is a registered 501(c)(3) and a Feeding America member, and part of the statewide Arizona Food Bank Network. Donors can review its financials through Charity Navigator and GuideStar. Bulk buying and donated food mean a gift produces many meals.
Donations and volunteer shifts run through unitedfoodbank.org. Volunteers sort and pack food at the Mesa facility, and cash gifts go furthest because of the food bank’s purchasing power.
Arizona is divided among five regional food banks. United Food Bank covers the East Valley and eastern Arizona, while St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix is the largest and covers the bulk of the state. For anyone in Mesa or the East Valley, United Food Bank is the lead local organization.
~150 agencies across the East Valley and eastern Arizona.
Food brought into communities with few fixed pantries.
School and weekend food support for kids at risk of hunger.
Food assistance for older adults on fixed incomes.
Sources: United Food Bank website (unitedfoodbank.org), GuideStar (EIN 86-0505273), and East Valley Tribune and ABC15 reporting on the appointment of Jason Reed. We are not affiliated with United Food Bank and receive no compensation for this listing. Spotted an error? [email protected]
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