Two Phoenix school districts receive $25,000 for student food pantries

Sept. 17

Earlier this month, two Phoenix school districts in low-income areas received a total of $25,000 in donations to cover the cost of food pantries for students.

The Roosevelt and Creighton school districts were the recipients of the donation. Education leaders are preparing for the slashing of federal funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, due to President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“There’s already a high concern with increased poverty in a lot of the school districts. The affordability of everything (has) gone up, and so the schools are, now like a lot of other community orgs, are centers of where people go for help,” Arizona Education Association (AEA) President Marisol Garcia said.

Garcia, along with National Education Association President Becky Pringle, visited the school districts to bring awareness to the Federal cuts to SNAP and how the cuts will affect families and students.

Both districts already had food pantries in existence. The schools have seen an increase in students and families needing assistance, Garcia said.

“Unfortunately, more and more families are reaching out for extra food, for things on how to help cover bills, utility bills, health care,” Garcia said.

“There’s been this fear of job loss or the increase of everything that’s happening as far as increase in prices. Families are turning out in higher numbers at these places,” she said.

How Roosevelt and Creighton school districts help students and families

Pringle and Garcia also visited the Creighton Family Resource Center. The center provides the community with early-childhood education programs, an on-site food pantry and social services.

“When students are hungry, they can’t learn. At a time when Donald Trump and his allies are slashing support for our students – cutting $186 billion from food programs that so many of our students and families rely on so they don’t go hungry – meeting the educators in Arizona who are standing in the gaps to help our students is so inspiring,” Pringle said in a press release.

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration cut close to $1 billion in federal funding food banks used to help their communities.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will implement the largest cut to SNAP in history, according to the Center for American Progress. That’s why the donations were important because Pringle and Garcia feel the number of families and students in need will increase.

As Pringle and Garcia ended their visit at the center, they surprised staff and announced their organizations were donating $15,000 to support food distribution in the Creighton community.

At the Roosevelt School District, Pringle and Garcia held a discussion with local leaders and gave them a $10,000 donation to help fund the district’s two community food pantries.

Garcia is a teacher at Isaac School District in the West Valley and has served as President of the AEA since May 2022.

As a teacher, Garcia made sure to always have extra snacks on hand for her students. Having extra food on hand is something common amongst teachers, she said.

Garcia places bags of canned food and snacks her students can grab on their way out the door of her classroom.

“Those wrap-around services unfortunately are just invaluable to these school districts and with the way that we’ve cut budgets here in the state, it becomes more reliant on us to be like the band aid or to try to be a bridge,” Garcia said.

“The fear is that when that bill is completely seen into fruition or the first SNAP cuts I think happen next month in October, it’s going to be bigger, and we’re going to see more and more hungry students and hungry families.”

Photo courtesy of Arizona Education Association.

Reporting by “Arizona Horizon” Education Solutions Reporter Roxanne De La Rosa. Her role is made possible through grant funding from the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund and Report for America.