Yuma Community Food Bank Mission Statement:

To Relieve Hunger, Increase Self Reliance, and Improve the Quality of Life for Children and Families throughout Southwestern Arizona

The Vision Statement is, 'to build a strong, well nourished community in Southwestern Arizona.

Description:
The Yuma Community Food Bank is a non-profit organization that provides 15 emergency and supplemental food programs to a three county service area: Yuma County, LaPaz County and Imperial County, CA. Those programs include but are not limited to: the Emergency Food Box Program, Food for Hospice, Fill the Shelves for Habitat, Harvest Club, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program,Monthly Food Distributions, School Based Produce Distributions, among others.

The Food Bank is a safety net for families, the elderly and individuals that find themselves with a crisis or a trauma in their lives. The Food Bank's Harvest Club is a self sustainment program for low income families that teaches and provides the means to stretch the available food dollor. The Food Bank is the organization that supports 4100 students on weekly basis with fresh fruits and vegetables to ensure that nutritional foods are available on the weekends when federal programs are not available.

Along with programs in Yuma, LaPaz and Imperial County Ca., The Food Bank being in the lettuce capital of the world provides fresh pershiables foods for every county in Arizona. When Yuma has excess produce then it is shared throughout the State, then to the nearest states that can absord the product. The Food Bank also has a gleaning crew that is fully supported by volunteers that pick, clean and process gleaned produce on behalf of the Food Bank out of donated fields of agriculture.

The Food Bank also participates in local activities for public awareness and education. The Food Bank is the steward of the Farmers Market in the Downtown area from December through April every year and the Farmers Market in Carver Park during May and June of each year. The Food Bank participates in Yuma P.L.A.Y. days, Chamber Mixers, Yuma Lettuce Days, and many other activities.

History:
Brief History of the Yuma Community Food Bank

The Yuma Community Food Bank (YCFB) is a private, non-profit organization that was founded by a group of volunteers seeking to assist the growing number of children living in poverty in Yuma County. Established in the year of 1978 and incorporated in October 1981, YCFB's mission is to relieve hunger, increase self- reliance and improve the quality of life for children and families throughout southwestern Arizona. Since the inception, YCFB has grown from a 2,000 square foot facility to a 10,000 square foot facility with the assistance of a Community Development Block Grant in 1994; to the announcement and presentation of a 100,000 square foot facility in a Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust. This new facility allows YCFB to accommodate the over 11 million pounds of product that currently is processed annually. The building provides YCFB the ability to sustain self-life of perishable foods, maintain larger quantities and varieties of product and expand the distributions of fresh nutritional products to the outlying areas of Yuma, La Paz and Imperial Counties.

In 1995, the Board of Directors hired the current Executive Director, Ronna Sue Stubbs and under her direction has expanded staff from 5 to 20 and the goal will be to increase staff to 25 within the next fiscal year. During her tenure, customers have been affected by Welfare Reform, low paying jobs, company layoffs, language barriers and the lack of education; those have caused an increase in the need for emergency food and supplemental food programs. Along with the emergency food box system, YCFB created, implemented or has expanded 15 food programs that range from produce to children, supplemental boxes for the elderly and increased support to other non-profit organizations within the service area. In FY 1995, YCFB distributed approximately 5.6 million pounds of food and provided services to 43,000 Yuma County residents in 8 food programs and 26 agencies. In FY 2003, YCFB distributed 11.4 million pounds of food and provided services to 110,000 resident visits in 15 food programs and 52 agencies. In response to the vast abilities of YCFB, the food bank has been established as the nutritional base provider for the southwestern portion of Arizona.

Beyond 15 food programs, the collaboration efforts between YCFB, the Arizona Statewide Gleaning Project and the Association of Arizona Food Banks allows Yuma to support the statewide effort of feeding hungry Arizonians. YCFB does this by coordinating, soliciting and distributing 6-8 million pounds of produce annually. YCFB's Gleaning Project (the process of harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables from farmlands and back yards, along with collections from Produce Coolers and Brokers to be distributed to families through Food Bank programs) is one of the largest in the state and will continue to expand with the cultivation of 63 produce coolers and brokers in Imperial County, California.

Contact people:

Ronna Sue Stubbs, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Nohemi Reyes, CSFP Coordinator, (phone), (email) Carlos Lozano, Agency Liasion, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (928) 782-7924

Languages Spoken: English, Spanish

Address:

2404 E 24th St Yuma, AZ 85365 This location is handicap accessible (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.yumafoodbank.org