Food Bank halts delivery to Giving Tree

That discrepancy is the latest in a list of problems found by the Food Bank, which had temporarily deactivated Giving Tree from its distribution list three times before suspending the group, said Jean Fox, agency relations manager for the Food Bank.

Hundreds of unaccounted-for 2-pound packages of sliced ham were supposed to go into emergency food boxes distributed by the Food Bank through Giving Tree. The emergency food boxes, which are part of the federally regulated Emergency Food Assistance Program, are a last-resort safety net for hungry Tucsonans.

Giving Tree also received free food from the Food Bank for its twice-weekly feeding program, which was also suspended.

After the suspension on Nov. 4, the Food Bank took back all of its remaining food from the Giving Tree, including about 30 5-pound hams the Food Bank purchased to be handed out in November and December for the holiday season, Fox said.

While the Food Bank sometimes temporarily stops providing food to an agency while working through problems, she said, Giving Tree is just the second organization to be suspended in more than 20 years.

Neither Giving Tree Director Libby Wright nor Giving Tree board member Glenn Bancroft, who serves as the nonprofit's designated spokesman, returned phone calls on Tuesday.

The Food Bank isn't the first community charity to cuts its ties with Giving Tree. After an Arizona Daily Star investigation earlier this month that revealed the hoarding of diapers and food by Giving Tree, among other problems, the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona issued a statement that it had stopped providing diapers to Giving Tree in 2006 because of "concerns over diaper-distribution practices."

Fox said the Food Bank tried to work through problems with the Giving Tree several times before deciding on suspension. Past problems were that Giving Tree had not prepared and stored food properly and could not account for donated food, she said.

She said when she checked in last month with the woman running the Giving Tree's food box program, the woman didn't know anything about the sliced ham, which had been provided by the Arizona Department of Economic Security.

"This is nothing against her; she was doing a good job, but when we said, 'How is the ham going over,' she knew nothing about the ham," Fox said. The ham, which is perishable, was given to the Giving Tree in separate packaging from nonperishable food-box items so it could be kept cold.

Fox said that when she questioned people working with the Giving Tree, they either didn't know about the ham, guessed it might have been put away in freezers, or handed out at the Giving Tree's biweekly meals program.

Fox said she understands mistakes do occur, but this was "completely unacceptable."

"If this was the first time that this happened, we might have taken it as human error, but this is the latest in a number of incidents with this organization," said. "We had lost almost a month's worth of the 2-pound packages of ham."

The Giving Tree responded to the Community Food Bank's concerns by accusing the Food Bank of "hurting the client," Fox said. "We were the bad guys; we were doing everything wrong," she said.

The indefinite suspension will be difficult to reverse, Fox said. "A lot of things would have to change before they could ever come back to us. I can't tell you how many times I've driven by there to make sure everything's OK"

Fox said it's important to make sure food is being handled and distributed properly so donors know their food or money is going to good use.

People who need emergency food boxes can still get them from a number of other distribution locations, including Freedom Park at East 29th Street and South Swan Road, which is within walking distance of Giving Tree's Compassion Hope Center, 4650 E. Eastland St., where food boxes were handed out three times a week. Compassion Hope Center staff members can also refer clients to other nearby distribution locations, Fox said.