Amidst the green shelves of Miami Junior Senior High, stands the school's food pantry. The shelves are being stocked with non-perishable food items that will be available to students later in the school year.
The food pantry is located just off the school library and was created in collaboration with the Miami Unified School District and the Thrive Well Together group, which included the AZ Health Zone program of Gila County.
AZ Health Zone helped with funding to get the pantry started, painted, and cleared out, and also hosted student workshops. When the program's funding was cut at the national level, AZ Health Zone staff did a warm hand-off of the project to the school.
"The Globe-Miami area appeared to be a food desert after the pandemic," said Dr. Richard Ramos, superintendent of Miami Unified School District. Because of that, the food pantry pillar was added to the Thrive Well Together strategic plan.
However, the food pantry was damaged in the flood in September 2025. Ramos said the district is rebuilding and stocking up items to reopen in the spring.
"We are turning the pantry over to our students so they can plan, organize, and provide the human capital to operate," Ramos said. "We look to launch a grand opening by the second half of the school year."
Thrive Well Together was developed in 2024 by Ramos and Anna Gilmore of Clarvida, a behavioral health agency. The pair applied for and received an incubator grant to develop the program.
"With Dr. Ramos' experience in education, and mine in mental health, we wanted to bring services back to the community, as we had both just moved back after being in the valley for over 25 years," Gilmore said.
Thrive originally consisted of four pillars: social/emotional health, food pantries, school gardens, and physical activity. A fifth pillar, education, was recently added. The group's mission is to foster a community engagement project that builds sustainable systems and programs benefiting the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of Globe, Miami, and San Carlos.
Members of Thrive include school staff, mental health workers, public health employees, law enforcement, city employees, insurance company representatives, and more. They meet several times per month to develop projects and programs that will soon be made available to the community.
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