Now easier to use than ever, the Arizona Working Poor tax credit was created to encourage donations to organizations like St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, which distributes enough food into the community to provide 300,000 meals every day throughout the state of Arizona. By making a donation to the Food Bank, taxpayers may qualify for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit (a reduction to their final tax bill, lowering the amount owed) of up to $200 for individuals or $400 for those married filing jointly. In addition to the state tax credit, donors may also be able to take a deduction for federal tax purposes.

St. Mary’s Food Bank, given a top four-star rating by Charity Navigator, spends 96% of its budget to help low-income Arizonans. During the last fiscal year, the Food Bank distributed 67.7 million pounds of food in 13 of the state’s 15 counties. With the economic downturn, the Food Bank has seen a steady 76% increase in demand for its services over last year.

http://www.kpho.com/video/22044210/index.html

Downtown Glendale will be a place where generosity and compassion are celebrated for the holidays during Glendale Glitters. And you can help St. Mary’s Food Bank during the special “Spirit of Giving” Weekend.

Friday, Dec. 11, and Saturday, Dec.12, from 6-10 p.m. each night, join in the fun and enjoy 1.5 million lights and all kinds of entertainment for the entire family. Glendale is honoring and celebrating many nonprofit organizations and companies that give back to the Glendale community, including the West Valley Child Crisis Center, Donor Network of Arizona, the Swift Branch and The Boys and Girls Club.

Glendale’s Spirit of Giving event will also have St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance on hand, collecting canned food items to benefit to the less fortunate during this holiday season. Last year, the event collected enough food to help provide 10,186 meals to needy families and this year, with demand increasing, event organizers hope to exceed that number.

The Spirit of Giving weekend in downtown Glendale offers free admission, and will also feature food and beverages, horse-drawn carriages rides with special mini-pony rides, inflatable rides and visits with Santa Claus. For more information, visit www.GlendaleGlitters.com.

Arizona State and University of Arizona football fans don’t agree on much, but they do have a chance to work together before Saturday’s annual showdown at Sun Devil Stadium and to help those in the state struggling to feed their families.

The first annual “Territorial Cup Series Food Fight,” sponsored by State Farm Insurance, will take place outside the stadium in the hours leading up to kickoff. Demand has doubled for emergency holiday food boxes during the early stages of this holiday season, and St. Mary’s Food Bank is hoping fans from both teams will help with donations of non-perishable food and cash that will go immediately to work in 13 of Arizona’s 15 counties.

Volunteers from ASU4Food and State Farm Insurance will be stationed at numerous food-drop locations surrounding the stadium. The ASU4Food group is also holding a raffle and those who donate are eligible to win a football or Sun Devil Stadium panoramic photo autographed by ASU coach Dennis Erickson.

St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance would like to thank the members of the five Valley Weight watcher locations for a tremendous effort in their 2009 Food Drive.

After collecting more than 9,300 pounds of food in 2008, the Weight Watchers staff and members really turned up their efforts and collected 17,828 pounds to help the Food Bank at a very critical time. The 51st Avenue and Cactus location in Phoenix brought in more than 5,000 pounds alone, while the locations at 14537 Grand Avenue and 350 East Bell Road each totaled over 4,000.

On behalf of the nearly 18,000 members of the community that will enjoy meals because of your generosity … Thank you Weight Watchers!

Come enjoy devilish foods, ghoulish drinks and a haunted house that will leave your teeth chattering on Halloween Night.

The “Haunted House For Hunger” will take place from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m on Saturday, Oct 31st at 13528 West Desert Lane in Surprise (major cross streets are Greenway Road and West Pointe Parkway). Admission is a non-perishable food item for St. Mary’s Food Bank. Call (623) 696-9674 for directions and more information.

Here’s a unique way to help St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance fight hunger. Through our “Buy-a-Bird, Feed a Family” program, you can purchase one of our cute toy turkeys. These birds – Mr. Touchdown($20), Toni Can-Can($15), and Sheriff Tex($15) – are a great way to help the Food Bank feed those in need, while providing a unique gift for yourself, a family member, business associate or client. You can even designate someone to receive the turkey and we’ll send it out, with a card.

You can order by: visiting www.buyabird.org; or mailing your order to SMFB, 2831 N. 31st Ave., Phoenix 85009 Attn:BuyaBird; or by calling 602 343-3164.
Remember: each $1 donated allows us to provide the equivalent of 7 meals to those in need.

MINI North Scottsdale (7101 East Chauncey Lane in Scottsdale) will hold its first food drive and motor rally for St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance on Saturday. Oct. 11 beginning at 9 a.m.

What better way to tie in one of your favorite pastimes – Motoring in you MINI – and helping family’s in need as the holiday season approaches? All you need to do is bring a mini – or even a maxi – bag full of non-perishable food items for donation to MINI North Scottsdale and follow the leader for a great ride. Please RVSP by Oct. 4 to Renate or Hillary at (480) 538-6401 or check out www.miniaz.com.

St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance wishes to thank everyone who helped Send Hunger Packing this summer, recognizing that hunger doesn’t take a vacation.

Because of the great reaction from companies, organizations and individuals who responded with donations of food, money and time – the Food Bank was able to serve everyone who needed assistance to get through Arizona’s long, hot summer and keep some food in the shelves for the months ahead.

Here are some of the exciting wrap-up totals:

*Companies, organizations and individuals combined to raise $1,526,000 to benefit St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance’s during Send Hunger Packing 2009. This allowed the Food Bank to distribute over 10.6 million meals into the community, from children in the summer feeding program to seniors through our B.R.E.A.D. home distribution efforts.

*St. Mary’s received 15,786,036 pounds of donated food and other products during Send Hunger Packing 2009. It couldn’t have come at a better time since record demand required more than 100,000 Emergency Food Boxes and 35,000 Emergency Baby Boxes be distributed by the Food Bank this summer!

*With the help of four “Rock ‘N Box events and an overwhelming response from the companies, organizations and individuals, 95,262 volunteer hours were logged during Send Hunger Packing 2009. Those volunteer hours are equal to the equivalent of about 150 full-time employees added to St. Mary’s work force.

While everyone who helped played and important role, St. Mary’s wishes to thank those who made a special effort to Send Hunger Packing in 2009:

Jetsetters
Donors of 3,000 pounds of food, $5,000 or 240 volunteer hours
*Denotes Food Bank Trifecta: Donor of food, time and money
Ace Vending
Advantage Logistics
AJ’s
Albertsons
Allen Orchard
American Italian Pasta Company
Americold Logistics
Arizona Daily Sun
Arizona Marketing
Automatic Vending Service
Bashas’
Bellevue Heights Church Foundation
BIMBO Bakery
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
Blue Sky Farms
Bread Basket Bakery
Café Valley Bakery
Campbell Soup Company
The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation
Carolina Logistics
Chiquita
Chompies
City Seafoods
City of Phoenix
Coca Cola
Coliman Pacific Corporation
Columbia Fresh Produce
ConAgra
Coosemans
Corona Del Sol High School
Costco
Del Monte
Deloitte
Durobag
East Caffe
Everkrisp Vegetables, Inc.
Excel Ice Cream Company
The Ferry Family Foundation
Food City
Franciscan Renewal Center
Freedom Debt Relief
Freeport Logistics
Fresh & Easy
Frito Lay
Fry’s Food & Drug
G Farms
Glendale from the Heart
Golden State Foods
Grand Avenue Produce
Grand Canyon Distribution
Greer Farms
Hi-Health
Holsum
HQ
International Union Local 428
Jack In the Box Distribution
Kellogg
Knight Transportation
Kodiak Produce
Kraft
La Canasta Mexican Food Products
Litchfield Elementary School
Marquez Brothers Southwest, Inc.
Martori Farms
McLane Foodservice
McLane Sunwest
Michael Lewis Company
Mission Foods
Mountain King Potatoes
Moreno Family Foundation
National Philanthropic Trust
Navajo Marketing Company
Oroweat
Otto & Edna Neely Foundation
Peddler’s Son
Pepperidge Farms
Pepsi-Cola
Phoenix Fresh Produce
Phoenix Meet Up
Pinnacle Produce
Phoenix Suns Charities
Pinto Creek Potato Company
Points West Sales & Marketing
Poore Brothers, Inc.
Produce Brokers of Arizona
ProInnovative
Quik Trip
Reckitt & Benckiser
Red Hawk Farming
Roma of Arizona
Rotary – Phoenix Camelback Foundation
R&M Clark Family Foundation
Fousseau Farming Company
Ryder Logistics
Safeway
Sam’s Club
Santa Rosa Produce
Sara Lee
S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Scottsdale Insurance Co.
Shamrock Food
Signature Bread
Snyder’s of Hanover
Southwest Cold Storage
Southwest Traders
Southwestern Processors
Sparkletts Drinking Water
Sprouts
States Logistics
Stern Produce
Sun City Rotary Foundation
Sun City – Youngtown Rotary Foundation
Sunflower Markets
Super Valu
Tanita Produce
Target (food and volunteer hours)
Tavilla Sales
Trader Joe’s
U.S. Airways
U.S. Foodservice
University of Phoenix
Vanguard
Walgreens
Wal-Mart
Walmart Foundation
Wells Fargo*
Western Veg Produce
W. F. Williams Company
Willie Itule Produce Company

Weekend Warriors
Donors of 1,500 pounds of food, $2,500 or 120 volunteer hours
A Professional Image
Alphagraphics Glendale APS
APSM-JIT, Inc.
American Bankers Insurance Group, Inc.
American Express
American Slavic Association
Arizona Highways
Basic Food Markets
Bank of America
Cheesecake Factory
Chicago / Earth, Wind & Fire with World Hunger Year
Concrete Restoration Systems Inc.
Custom Food Service
DeFalco Family Foundation
Deer Valley Unified School District
Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce
Flagstaff Rotary Foundation
Field Calibrations, Inc.
Gangplank
Gelato Matta
General Mills
Greenberg & Traurig
Knight Transportation
Lord of Life Lutheran Church
M&I Wealth Management
Monica J. Stern, CPA, PLLC
Phoenix Fire Station #52
Pilgrim’s Pride
Reliable Refrigeration
Scottsdale Police Department
Shea-Edwards Ltd. Partnership
Sodexo Foundation
Strength Training
US Bancorp Foundation, Inc.
US Foodservice
Wood, Patel & Associates, Inc.
YSP, LLC

From now through October, every purchase of an Uncle Ben’s rice product will result in a donation to Feeding America’s Kids Cafe program to fund the development of new locations in the U.S. as well as the planned expansion of St. Mary’s Kids Café around the state. In addition, when you sign on to www.unclebens.com and sign Ben’s journal, Uncle Ben’s will donate an additional $1 for each signature added to the list.