It is estimated that about 18% of the families that live in the national park benefit from the pantry.
Flagstaff Family Food Center (FFFC), which has for more than three decades run a food bank and kitchen serving Northern Arizona, has assumed operations of the Grand Canyon Food Pantry Inc. (GCFPI), ensuring its continued service to those who live and work in and around Grand Canyon National Park.
“We’re proud to carry on the important work that President Mike Scott started seven years ago,” said FFFC President and CEO Ethan Amos. “We expect a seamless transition, ensuring that everyone who uses the pantry continues to receive the high-quality service they’ve come to appreciate.”
Scott, who was honored earlier this year as a “Hunger Action Champion” at the FFFC’s Anti-Hunger Summit, approached FFFC about taking over the pantry so that he could retire
from his volunteer role as director.
The food pantry is open three days a week, delivers food boxes weekly to the Havasupai families living within the Grand Canyon National Park, and holds a monthly mobile food pantry in Tusayan in front of the town hall.
The inspiration for the GCFPI came from a conversation in 2017 between Scott and Matthew Vandzura, then chief ranger at the park. Vandzura noted that more than half the children in the local school system received subsidized lunch. What did they do, the two men wondered, when school was out? During the next two years, volunteers provided students with meals during the summers.
The mission of the organization quickly expanded when they opened an emergency food pantry in December 2018, to help workers furloughed because of the six-week government shutdown that closed the national park. Plans to create a permanent food bank were made and the National Park Service provided a location, the old jail in the park, where the pantry still operates today.
It is estimated that about 18% of the families that live in the national park benefit from the pantry.
Currently, the operation is run entirely by volunteers, including Scott. FFFC will have a paid employee to oversee management of the pantry, but Scott and Amos said volunteers are still essential to the operation of the organization.
“The heart and soul of organizations like FFFC and Grand Canyon Food Pantry are our volunteers,” said Amos. “They embody our mission of ‘Neighbors Feeding Neighbors, Every Day’ and make it possible for us to change lives.”
Even though he is retiring from directing the pantry, Scott plans to be one of those volunteers.
“Next to raising a family, working with so many willing people, businesses, the public sector and other food banks to bring a measure of food security to the people who live and work in the Canyon and Tusayan has been one of the most truly rewarding experiences of my life,” he said. FBN
Courtesy Photo: Grand Canyon National Park representatives are working with the Flagstaff Family Food Center as it takes over operations for the Grand Canyon Food Pantry in the wake of President Mike Scott’s retirement. Shown here are Tim Joyce, Jan Balsom, Luke Lasiloo, Ceara Chirovsky, Ed Keable, Ethan Amos, Mike Scott, Heather Lapre, Jennifer O’Neill and Justin Cully.