TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The City of Tucson is reexamining its food distribution permitting system.
Tucson Parks and Recreation invited the community to two meetings over the week, looking to get feedback on how the current permitting system is performing and to hear the community concerns about the process.
Though the participants in those meetings overwhelmingly agreed the best way to improve the permit system is to remove it entirely, which some Tucson mutual aid groups are hopeful for.
One of those groups, Community Care Tucson, has set up a distribution at the same corner of Armory Park at the same time every week for the last four years.
They give out clothing, harm reduction supplies, medical care and a hot meal.
One of the group organizers, Liz Casey, has watched the operation, and the community it created, grow for those four years.
“The amount of people we see every week has grown. The amount of people who come out and help every week has grown, and what we offer has grown a lot also."
She says people will start lining up 30 minutes to an hour before they start serving food.
Matt Longwell is one of them. He says at that time of the week, Community Care Tucson is his only sure way to get a meal.
“It’s the only place I know food will be,” he said. “I know of three feeds per week in the immediate two mile radius, and they are not everyday, and they are not all day.”
Though there's no permit available to legally distribute food in Armory Park, Tucson Parks and Recreation offers food distribution permits at five locations:
- Mission Manor, seven days a week, morning and evening
- Mansfield Park, weekdays, mornings only
- Todd Harris Sportsplex, weekdays, mornings only
- Reid Park, 22nd and Country Club, seven days a week, morning and evening
Department director Lara Hamwey says they chose these locations based on data from the city's Homeless Encampment reporting tool.
"We're determining one per ward where we would encourage someone to go and distribute food via the permit.”
Hamwey said the permits exist to help regulate food safety and focus on equitable distribution of resources. The city chose parks that have a bathroom and are farther than a mile or mile and a half of another food distributor, like a shelter or meal program.
Casey says these mutual aid groups are going to where they see a need in their neighborhoods.
"Mutual aid exists mostly because the systems that are currently in place cannot provide for the basic needs of everyone in the community, and that's not something I believe the government can regulate.”
Tucson Parks and Recreation will take the responses from both meetings and see what is actually possible for the city to do before making recommendations to Tucson's City Manager then Mayor and Council.
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Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
