Maricopa Pantry has lost a loyal volunteer and a dear friend, Kat Boyd.   

The pantry is a nonprofit providing food bank services to the city of Maricopa and surrounding areas. Most recently, on Saturday, Maricopa Pantry served 1,915 families before noon. 

Boyd had been a volunteer with the pantry for over a decade, but pantry Vice President Alice Shoaf said she had been giving back to the community long before then. 

Shoaf recalled how Boyd came to be a part of the Maricopa Pantry family: “She just showed up one day and said, ‘Hey, can I do this?’ And we said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’” 

During her time with the pantry, Boyd made a lasting impact not only on the other volunteers but the hungry neighbors she helped.  

She was a delivery driver and would take boxes of food to homeless people as well as families and individuals who were unable to make it to the food bank for whatever reason. Shoaf noted she had a list of some dozen families that she would deliver to on a regular basis.   

According to Shoaf, Boyd was a helper at heart.  

“She would come early in the morning; she’d be there when we got there,” Shoaf said. “She helped us set up, she helped us get ready and then when we were in a good place, she would load up her boxes and spend the morning delivering food to people who couldn’t get to us.”  

Boyd also chauffeured volunteers to the pantry. Another man — Shoaf called him Dennis — has since taken over her route. 

“He never would have come to us if it hadn’t been for her,” Shoaf said. “And those people that she took care of would not be taken care of now. They were her ‘peeps’ as she would say.”  

Boyd was found dead in her home Sept.18, but it is believed that she died the day before. The cause of her death is still not known after nearly six weeks. 

The pantry will hold a memorial service for Boyd at Mountain View Community Church, 50881 W. Papago Road, Nov. 2 at 3 p.m.  

“Kat loved life, and we loved Kat,” Shoaf said. “So, it’s just a celebration of the life that she lived and the way she helped folks. She helped a lot of folks out here, but they were folks that nobody sees … and that’s why she was so special to us.”  

Those attending the memorial service are asked to bring potluck dishes to share along with their stories and memories of Boyd.  

“We miss her,” Shoaf said. “Kat reminded you of a biker chick. She had a rough exterior, and she could be kind of gruff, but she had a soft heart, and she loved people.”