St. Mary's Food Bank distributed food to 2,000 families on the Navajo Nation on Tuesday, marking its largest single mobile pantry distribution in its history of more than half a century, the nonprofit announced in a press release.

More than an hour before the pantry was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. in Tuba City, the nonprofit said a drive-thru line for the food distribution was about 5 miles long. Jerry Brown, a spokesperson for St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance, said it received the line estimate from tribal police.

The food bank brought in four tractor-trailer trucks with nearly 100,000 pounds of food, according to a press release. In less than three hours, the food was distributed in Tuba City to 2,000 families.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer said in a Facebook post that residents began lining up about 7 a.m. for the food distribution.

About 2,000 food boxes were distributed through "a no person-to-person contact procedure" by volunteers wearing protective equipment and placing the boxes of food into the trunks of cars, the tribe's leaders said.

"Great job to the Tuba City Chapter and St. Mary’s Food Bank for coordinating today’s food distribution to help many Navajo families during the COVID-19 pandemic," Nez said on Twitter.

The Navajo Nation has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

It had 838 known cases of COVID-19 and 33 deaths related to the virus as of Tuesday, and there has been a nightly curfew in effect since March 30 in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.

In total, the food bank, which was founded in 1967, served 3,427 families on Tuesday through its mobile pantries in Tuba City and the Salvation Army near 16th Street and Broadway Road in Phoenix, as well as its main facilities in Phoenix and Surprise, a press release said.

"That doesn’t include the hundreds of agency partners that St. Mary’s serves on a daily basis," the press release said. "The 250,000 meals St. Mary’s provides on a normal day has mushroomed significantly in the past three weeks and today."

Reach the reporter at chelsea.curtis@arizonarepublic.com or follow her on Twitter @curtis_chels.

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