Mission

Friends of the Quartzsite Food Bank mission is to alleviate hunger while improving the quality of a healthy lifestyle in and around our community where many live under the poverty level. 

We accomplish this with the distribution of food, clothing, and toiletries. 

Friends of the Food Bank is a community-based nonprofit supported by local organizations, businesses, churches, private grants, special events, and individual donations. We deliver to many small towns in our area up to 50-miles away.

We are a private AZ 501c3 Nonprofit.

The Friends Of The Quartzsite Food Bank was started in 2015 because we saw a need to help supplement the items received by the local Quartzsite Food Bank county program.   In 2017 there was a need for the county to turn it over to a non-profit and so FQFB is now operating as administrator for the Food Bank.
 

We are a 501c3 non-profit. All the money we raise is used to help the Quartzsite Food Bank. The board members do not receive any salary.   

We are Certified as a Qualifying Charitable Organization for Arizona Tax Credit.  Which means YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY YOUR ARIZONA TAXES up to $800 for a couple and $400 for a single person.  You can donate the money to the food bank instead.  See our Donate page for more info.
 

The items we purchase are important staples that are often not supplied by our distributors. They have difficulty receiving eggs, meat items, daily staples and often fresh vegetables.   
 

 The Quartzsite Food Bank serves a community of many seniors, young families with children who live below the poverty level.   Veterans and disabled adults are also among those that we help provide food for.  Individuals need more than just canned and packaged food. They need healthy protein and vitamins only obtained by providing fresh items.   We also help the homeless to find homes and help people from becoming homeless.  We have access to Veteran's advocates.

The Quartzsite Food Bank also serves the towns of Cibola, Ehrenberg and Bouse. In the winter months our population explodes with the snowbirds coming here. Most do not use the food bank's services but there are many that do which puts an extra need on the FQFB. 

  Donations from local organizations, businesses, churches, individuals and fundraisers like the annual December Soup & Chowder Contest help raise funds for the operation of FQFB.  We also have some special projects like holiday baskets for Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

  We are very appreciative of any contributions to us and announce donations in our local Desert Messenger newspaper, with permission of a donor.  We also have a web page and Facebook page that you can be recognized on. If you have a local newspaper we could include an announcement in it also. 

Please make donations below to help support the food bank.  

#foodbank #Quartzsitefoodbank #Quartzsite

Make the check out and mail to:

Friends of the Quartzsite Food Bank

PO Box 4051

Quartzsite, AZ  85359

928-662-7000

To Drop Off a Donation at the Quartzsite Food Bank or To Visit

 Located at 40 Moon Mountain Quartzsite, AZ

s

Summer Hours

May 1st to Sept 30th

Tuesday  7-11AM 

Thursday  7-11AM

 Winter Hours

Oct 1st to April 30th

Tues 8-Noon

Thurs 8-Noon

We can use lots of different types of food including:

Canned, Bottled or Packaged Food Items like vegetables, fruit, meat, peanut butter and more.

We also pass out toiletries that are donated like shampoo, soap, toothpaste and brushes and deodorant.

 We are Certified as a Qualifying Charitable Organization for Arizona Tax Credit.  Which means YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY YOUR ARIZONA TAXES up to $800 for a couple and $400 for a single person.  You can donate the money to the food bank instead.    

OR

DONATE USING PAYPAL OR VISA BELOW

It was a tough year for everyone again. High prices for groceries, increased gas prices, and continued COVID-19 meant more people were depending on the food bank to keep food on the table. But those same increasing food prices, along with supply chain disruptions, also make it harder for food banks to stay stocked.

Our management and volunteers worked tirelessly to help every person who came to our doors. Management also worked many more hours to deliver food to people who were quarantined in their homes.

Along with high prices our building and equipment is getting old. Repairs continued to eat away at our budget.

The continued support of our generous community donating time, money and food kept our doors open.

We look forward to 2022 to a healthier year for all.

COVID was the word that ruled the food bank this year. We completely changed the way we handed out food. Changing from people walking in the front door to having them drive around to the back and never getting out of their cars. Our amazing volunteers carried all the groceries out to their cars and put them in their back seat or truck. We doubled the amount of clients we had that needed a hand up during this crisis.  People who used to be our donors are now our clients.

This took some organizing and funds to set up. We built an office/shed for people to stop and check-in at. Added more cement at the back door to be able to walk out do deliver food more safely. Added people to supervise the cars coming in at the entrance.

But there was a wonderful surprise to all this. We like handing out groceries this way. It is more efficient and faster. So when all is said and done we plan on keeping it this way in the future.

Our manager Jason and his family moved back east this year. To replace them running the food bank we had Dee Nise and Victor Stoe who stepped up with their son Dakota. The change over went smoothly and they are doing a great job.

Through out this we were still able to keep delivering food to homebound people in Quartzsite and to outlying cites that do not have food banks like Bouse, Ehrenburg and Cibola which is 50 miles away. We have a truck donated from the county to do deliveries but it is old and needs to be replaced soon.

Carol's Closet has managed to stay open except when the air conditioner bit the dust and it was too hot for the volunteers to work in the building. We will be trying to figure out how to replace the air conditioning in the building for next summer. The Closet run by volunteer has passed out many free clothes and toiletries to people who just need a few things to help them get buy. The volunteers do a great job of sorting through all the awesome recycled clothes that are donated by you. The Quartzsite Quilters donate their handmade blankets they have made for the babies in town.  The Closet has designs painted on the walls by members of the Art Guild which makes it look like a cute little boutique.

We have the best team of volunteers. We add a few and loose a few but there is a core group of dedicated volunteers that keeps this place running. Without the volunteers we would not have the Carol's Cupboard Food Bank or Carol's Closet. Please say thank you to them when you see them, it means a lot for them to hear you appreciate all the hard work they do.

The Friends of the Quartzsite Food Bank is the private nonprofit that raises money to keep our doors open. Without the donations we receive from you we could not operate. We had to cancel the Soup & Chowder and Chili & Cornbread Feed fundraisers this year because of the virus. But we were able to have the Santa's Workshop which raised funds to help us out. We have increased our monthly donors and funds from Amazon Smile this year. Our Legacy Project has benefited from donated funds and items more this year. We benefited from the AZ Tax Credit which allows people to donate to the food bank instead of paying their AZ state taxes. So we send out a big thank you to the individual, churches, nonprofits, businesses, the town, the county, fundraiser volunteers and grants that keep us going. 

The year of 2020 has drawn to a close and the corona virus crisis brought about many abrupt changes to the way we work, but our mission remained the same;  alleviate hunger while improving the quality of a healthy lifestyle in and around our community.

2019 was our 2nd full year running the Quartzsite Food Bank. It was a good year with wonderful volunteers making it happen. Without our volunteers we could not collect, sort, bag and distribute food to people who need a hand up.

Many generous donors helped us keep the doors open with donations of funds, groceries, clothes and toiletries for Carol's Closet, cans and bottles to recycle to help Carol's Chaulk Board and even vehicles. 

Cornerstone Mission Project teamed up with us to help the homeless find homes and keep people from becoming homeless. 

With the help of AZ Complete Health we were able to do a Health Fair at the Senior Center to teach people better take care of themselves, signed them up on AZ ACCHS AZ no charge insurance and live a healthier life style.

Carol's Chalkboard headed up by Holly put together many organizations from around the state to put on a Fun Family Fall Festival Children's Expo.

Santa's Workshop and The Soup & Chowder Contest Fundraisers were a lot of fun and well attended.

With our increased funds and food we were able to reach out and help more people in 2019.

2018 Was Our 1st Full Year Running the Quartzsite Food Bank. What a year it has been.

Fundraisers like the Chili and Cornbread Feed, Santa's Workshop Craft Show, Soup and Chowder Contest and Line Dance Class were all very successful for us.

Carol's Closet and Chalkboard opened up in the building next to us. They both have been very busy. The Closet gives out free clothes and toiletries. The Chalkboard has books and worksheets for children to borrow and use. The Chalkboard also has taken the children on road trips like to the Gum Museum

Serving more people than ever with more fresh vegetables, fruit and eggs.

The FQFB was approved for the Arizona Tax Credit Program.

None of this could have been done without the hard work of our wonderful volunteers and donors!

2017 FQFB Annual Report

 We started the year out with losing our director of the Food Bank in Quartzsite of many years Carol Kelly. Her passing was a huge loss for us. The wonderful core group of food bank volunteers stepped up to keep the food bank running smoothly.  If not for the volunteers the good bank could not run.

Then in the spring, the county let us know they could not run the food bank any longer. St. Mary's food bank said they would be able to manage Parker and Salome but not Quartzsite. We could not let the food bank close so FQFB board negotiated a deal with the county to administrate it. Jason Moore was appointed the director to manage the day to day operations.

We struggled to make ends meet during the summer but prevailed with the help of local private donors, organizations, and churches.

In November we were able to have a ribbon cutting to celebrate the new sign naming the building Carol's Cupboard.

Came the end of the year and the snowbirds came back, the local organizations opened up and the donations in Quartzsite started coming in. Fundraisers ended the year on a high note!