Tucson church's food pantry overwhelmed by demand

The Christ Church United Methodist food bank, 655 N. Craycroft Road, is facing maximum capacity in users.

The church asked the Arizona Daily Star to take it off a published list of local food resources because it cannot serve current demand.

“We are at peak capacity already as we have seen a huge increase over the summer and the last couple months,” said volunteer manager Katherine Gilbert. “People are waiting in line for literally hours and still leaving because we weren’t able to serve them while we were open. Our volunteers are staying late but we still can’t keep up.”

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Gilbert said the church is trying to keep up, but “there are just too many people coming.”

Nearly 900,000 Arizonans lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits over the weekend due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.