Key Arizona Food Pantry Picking Up Pieces After Devastating Fire

Tim Bennett, warehouse manager at the Maricopa Food Pantry in Maricopa, Ariz. (L), and pantry CEO Jim Shoaf stand in front of a pile of burned remains of six trailers and 48,000 pounds of food that went up in an electrical fire at the pantry on March 28, 2022. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

MARICOPA, Ariz.—Maricopa Food Pantry CEO Jim Shoaf said the devastating pantry fire on March 28 in Maricopa, Arizona, couldn’t have come at a worse time of peak demand and concern about food shortages.

The electrical fire started at noon inside an old battery-powered pallet jack; by sunset, six parked trailers and 48,000 pounds of storage food lay in smoldering ruins.