Desert Ridge High School Partners with Just Serve & Harvest Pack - Nearly 1,200 Volunteers pack 180,000 Community Meals
Desert Ridge High School Partners with Just Serve & Harvest Pack - Nearly 1,200 Volunteers pack 180,000 Community Meals
Tristan Chavez
MESA, Ariz. (April 6, 2026) - On Saturday, March 28, 2026, Desert Ridge High School (DRHS) hosted a large-scale meal-packing event, with volunteers producing 22,505 food bags, which equate to 180,040 meals, for distribution to families and individuals facing food insecurity across the East Valley. The ‘Harvest Pack’ event brought together 1,179 volunteers across 3 separate packing sessions to process the family-sized bags that have been donated to Matthew’s Crossing Food Bank, United Food Bank, Superstition Community Food Bank, and Help Now AZ.
The event was made possible through community donations. $25,387.50 was donated from Light The World Giving Machines in Queen Creek, Arizona, plus an additional $26,717 donated from community members throughout the East Valley, totaling $52,104.50. Desert Ridge High School and JustServe partnered with Harvest Pack, a hunger relief organization that supports communities in hosting meal-packing events, to prepare oatmeal packs for distribution to the local nonprofits.
Desert Ridge High School served as the central location for packing the meals, utilizing three scheduled packing sessions to maximize output. Many students from DRHS volunteered as part of a school-wide effort to integrate community service into athletic and extracurricular programs.
"This event allows our campus to serve as a resource for our East Valley communities," said Scott Smith, Principal of Desert Ridge High School. "By hosting the Harvest Pack, we provide our students with a practical opportunity to collaborate with regional partners to support our local communities in need."
The 22,505 food bags were allocated equally to each of the partner nonprofit organizations, giving them about 5,626 bags each. Every food bag contains 8 servings, meaning every nonprofit organization received over 45,000 meals for Arizona families. The food will support several specialized hunger-relief programs, including weekend backpack initiatives for students and emergency food boxes for families and seniors.
According to data from partner organizations, the need for food services has increased significantly over the past year. Matthew’s Crossing reports a 30% rise in families seeking assistance this year, while United Food Bank sees over 130,000 visits to their pantries each month.
"The meals packed at this Harvest Pack event are going to be such a gift to countless neighbors! It was incredible to see so many people in the community come together to make such a tangible difference,” said Maddie Mittelstaedt, Food Drive Manager at United Food Bank. "The oatmeal packs we received will translate to tens of thousands of meals for families in Arizona. Our mission is uniting communities to alleviate hunger, and this event was a clear example of that in action."
Dennine Eagles of Matthew’s Crossing also noted the logistical importance of the family-sized portions, which allow students in the "Meals to Grow" program to provide nutritional support for their entire households.
“These meal packs are much more than just regular oatmeal packets that you normally see. Each pack can feed a family of four, and they’re large enough for us to include in our emergency food boxes and our weekend backpacks that we give to students. I can’t explain how grateful we are - it’s going to help us give more,” added Eagles.
The collaboration between Desert Ridge High School and these four nonprofits ensures that the impact of the Harvest Pack event reaches multiple demographics across the East Valley. From Superstition Community Food Bank’s work with seniors in East Mesa to Help Now AZ’s support for veterans and families in crisis, the distributed meals work to address food insecurity in many local communities.
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About Desert Ridge High:
Desert Ridge High School (DRH), located in Mesa, Arizona, is part of the Gilbert Public Schools district. With over 2000 students in grades 9-12, Desert Ridge High offers an extensive range of academic and extracurricular opportunities for all students, along with award-winning performing arts and athletics. DRH is home to the growing School of Innovation, where students follow an academic pathway that builds the skills and qualifications to unlock career opportunities in the job market of the future. Students are immersed in STEM, engineering, computer science, robotics, and beyond. Desertridgehigh.gilbertschools.net/.