More than 400 members and friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints crossed the finish line at the second annual Northeast Mesa Grocery Run on Feb. 21, 2026, not empty-handed but holding grocery bags filled with donations for a local pantry. Runners and walkers left the starting line, made a short run to a nearby park in Mesa and filled bags at collection tables; then, carrying those bags, they returned across the finish line to deliver food for distribution to neighbors in need. The Mesa Arizona Hermosa Vista Stake organized the event to combine physical activity with direct service, turning a community 5K into a visible, hands-on way to collect food for families facing food insecurity. Participants in red event shirts carry bags of donated food along the 5K route, collecting items for local pantries.
Organizers described the act of carrying filled grocery bags across the finish line as both literal and symbolic — a demonstration of the effort involved in providing for others. By the end of the Mesa event volunteers had loaded six truckloads of food destined for the Methodist food pantry, a contribution that organizers said replenished shelves and would continue to serve local families. In advance and throughout the run, volunteers set up collection tables where participants could place donated items; the flow of contributions from start to finish highlighted community willingness to respond when given a simple, structured opportunity to help.
Carol Tingey, who serves as a JustServe specialist for the Hermosa Vista stake, said one of the most valuable outcomes of the Grocery Run has been drawing attention to local needs and expanding options for where people can offer support. "People know another place to donate or help," she said, noting that the event also emphasized cooperation across different faiths and community groups. "Another thing that creates awareness is that we are all here to work together. It doesn’t matter what religion, we are all trying to help feed God’s children," she added, framing the run as both an act of service and a public demonstration of shared responsibility.
A separate event in northern Phoenix took a similar approach a month later. On March 28 the Phoenix Arizona Desert Hills Stake in Anthem held its second annual "5K to Feed the 5K," an event inspired by the New Testament account of Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. To keep the emphasis on the event’s spiritual inspiration and community focus, organizers asked each registrant to bring 10 cans of food as the entry fee, and every donated item was directed to St. Vincent de Paul, the local Catholic food pantry. More than 130 runners participated in the Anthem event, turning the request for canned goods into hundreds of individual food donations that were then collected and readied for distribution. Volunteers in matching shirts stand behind a trailer loaded with canned goods and boxed donations at the event collection point.
Rhonda Lucas, who founded the Anthem 5K and is a member of the stake, said the event created a strong sense of community cooperation. "There was a palpable feeling of community and cooperation in the air this year at the 5K," she said, reflecting on turnout and volunteer involvement. Lucas highlighted the collaborative outcome she hoped the event would produce: working directly with a Catholic food pantry to serve people in the area. "The most important impact from this event was that our ward was able to work with the Catholic food pantry to make a difference together," she said, adding that participants came away with a deeper appreciation for the partners they coordinated with and an interest in future joint efforts.
After the Anthem run, participants returned to the stake center, where rooms staged with religious artwork provided an additional element to the gathering. Displays depicting the Savior and scenes from his life were open for viewing, and many who toured them described the work as "simple, yet powerful." Organizers said those displays, combined with the physical act of giving during the race, reinforced the event’s dual purpose of service and spiritual reflection. The post-race environment offered a quieter counterpoint to the exertion of the run, allowing volunteers and donors to reflect together on the outreach they had just completed.
Taken together, the two events collected thousands of food donations for local agencies, bolstering emergency supplies at area pantries and demonstrating one model for faith-based community engagement in addressing hunger. Organizers emphasized that the runs were intended to be inclusive and cooperative, inviting members of different congregations and individuals from the wider community to participate and contribute. Beyond the immediate delivery of food, the events also created partnership opportunities between the sponsoring stakes and local charities, and served to broaden public awareness of where and how to give time and resources to help neighbors in need.
Volunteers and organizers said they plan to continue using community races as a platform for outreach, pairing physical activity with direct giving to meet tangible needs in their neighborhoods. By turning the familiar format of a 5K into a mobile food drive — with donated items carried along the course and formally handed over at the finish — the stake-sponsored events translated individual effort into collective assistance for hundreds of families served by Methodist and Catholic pantries in the region. The races also offered a straightforward invitation: bring food, join the run and add a visible weight to the shared work of feeding those who are food insecure.