While a crowd outside Tucson Food Share Monday awaited their chance to take groceries home, volunteer Vickie Brookover was forced to do something she never likes to do: ask a woman hoarding free groceries not to return after that night.
She said the food share can’t afford to run out of supply within an afternoon. But neither can Tucsonans who expect to go without their November food stamps as the government shutdown stretches to nearly one month.
Almost 900,000 Arizonans received SNAP each month this year, from a total of over 41 million people nationwide. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the average monthly benefit per person will be $188 in fiscal year 2026, which began on Oct. 1. The minimum monthly benefit for households of one to two is $24.
Tucson Food Share is a mutual aid group that was started during the pandemic. It operates on a no-questions-asked system where individuals and families come to pick groceries purchased by the food share or donated from local grocery stores.
Grocery pick-ups occur at 2500 N. Stone Ave. each Monday from 4:30-6 p.m.; Thursday from 6-7:30 p.m.; and Saturday from 8-9:30 a.m.
Brookover told AZPM that Tucson Food Share has seen its demand at least double in the last month and a half. Gloria Villavicencio, another volunteer, said about 80 people came to pick up groceries on Oct. 25.
“I foresee it being far more desperate and I’m concerned that, where we have a lottery system, people may become aggressive trying to get in,” Brookover said.
Monday was Deb Peterson’s first time visiting the food share. She said that she was upset that her SNAP benefits weren’t being released.
“I’ve gone without food for two days now ‘cause nobody told me that there was food pantries open. I thought that they were probably all out because so many of us are hungry,” Peterson said.
It was also Kelly McGuire’s first time at Tucson Food Share, having scrambled for food assistance at local food banks and churches.
“I’m getting turned away every time ‘cause they’re so busy. So I finally get to get to one. And then I went to the church on Tucson Boulevard and Fort Lowell. They serve a hot meal right now so I ran and got that on the way here,” she said.
After suffering a broken foot, a heart attack and then a stroke, McGuire has been unable to reenter the workforce and has lost her unemployment benefits. That means that, with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s requirement of at least 80 hours of work per month for SNAP recipients, McGuire will not even be eligible when the program’s funding is reinstated after the shutdown.
“I'm in customer service, I'm middle-aged and I had a heart attack. So I'm really limited with medical right now, but I'm trying. That's all you can do. Just keep going,” she said.
Tucson Food Share accepts monetary donations as well as clothing, bedding and food. In order to expand its capacity, the group said it needs a commercial freezer and commercial refrigerators. The food share depends fully on volunteers.
A prior version of this article incorrectly listed the number of Tucson Food Share visitors on Oct. 25 as 800. The correct number is 80.
