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After a few weeks of treasure hunting in the archives of  the Newspaper "The Miner" (former Mohave Daily Miner and/or Kingman Daily Miner) located in the Library of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts, our volunteer Patricia Koalska found some newspaper articles that give insight about our history.

Some articles have a reference of the Kingman Area Food Bank's activities before they moved to the location in downtown Kingman in September 1, 1989. 

The articles quote something like "meanwhile we'll continue operating where we are at" or "somebody twenty years ago started the food bank in their basement".

None of the articles she read mention the name of it's founder neither the location or a nearby landmark to identify where "the basement" was. 

Patricia K has asked people who have lived in Kingman since the early 80s but so far hasn't found any helpful information about the founder nor the original location where "the basement" was. 

* Sometime in the future, Patricia Koalska may go back to that library and find something about it, but by now her eyes need a break :)

In the following story, everything before 2020, is a synthesized paraphrase of the information Patricia found in the archived newspaper articles that she read.

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In the early1980s "somebody" saw a need to start a program to help feed the local community people who were less fortunate. 

At the time, the Good Samaritan Foundation had been feeding individuals passing through the Kingman, Arizona area who were in need. 

An article in the newspaper states that the Good Samaritan Foundation and the Kingman Area Food Bank were two separate entities.

The operation grew rapidly and it was soon realized that the need was larger than it was originally anticipated and The Kingman Area Food Bank was born. 

With extremely limited funds and resources, the operation started in somebody's basement.

According to newspaper articles from early 1989,  the volunteers of the Kingman Area Food Bank distributed commodities at the buildings of different churches and/or charitable organizations in Kingman and Golden Valley.

The dates, times and addresses were posted in the newspaper. 

Local Christian churches and organizations like the Elks Lodge supported the efforts of the KAFB through fund raiser dinners and activities. 

In the Sumer of 1989, the City of Kingman entered into an agreement with the Kingman Area Food Bank to use space at the city's maintenance yard on Buchanan Street, in downtown Kingman. 

On September 1, 1989 they moved to the "new building" at 1020 Buchanan St. (some articles state 1050 Buchanan St in what used to be the City Sign Shop and other work shops; other articles mention "Topeka St"). 

The volunteers remodeled it according to the Food Bank needs.

The organization paid no rent, but had to maintain the building.

Even though the "new" building was smaller than the basement they had been working from, it had more workable space but they still lacked the desired comforts, the metal building "got deathly hot in the summer and cold in the winter."

By the end of September of 1989 the number of families they had been serving went from 10 to 25 families per week (the two previous years) to 60 families per week (269 persons according to the newspaper article).

It was that September that the Kingman Area Food Bank started serving the public from that address. 

It opened doors to the public three days a week Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 am to 1 pm.

According to their President (at the time) Norman Shire, the Kingman Area Food Bank offered one-time only visits.  

He said: "We are a helping hand only. We try to keep it to one visit. Sometimes that is impossible and we do make exceptions." 

Because of the large number of clients, they referred them to other agencies that offered long-term solutions such a food stamps and/or employment.

Norm Shire continued: "We try not to encourage long term dependency on the Food Bank. Our service area is very large and we wouldn't be in business long if our clients were served on a continuing basis." The service area stretches to Dolan Springs and Peach Springs to the edge of Golden Valley. We have to turn some people down. Some people don't understand or don't want to understand that this is a one time thing. We will also turn people down if word gets back to us that they lost money in Laughlin or if they come in smelling of alcohol. They should be using that money for food". 

In 1990, according to Arnold Buss, Vice President (at the time) of the Board of Directors, the mission of the Kingman Area Food Bank was - and it still remains -:

"We are designed to help people get through a rough time, to help them get back on their feet".

Even though in that time the "Food Recovery Program" per se had not been created, the local stores Safeway, Basha's, Smith's and Walmart had been consistently donating fresh produce, bread and sometimes dairy and deli to the Kingman Area Food Bank; some daily, and some three times a week. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had consistently delivered large amounts of canned goods two or three times per year as well.

On August 7, 1990 The Kingman Area Food Bank was officially registered before the Arizona Corporate Commission as a "Domestic Nonprofit Organization".  

In a Kingman Daily Miner article from May 14, 2001 we found a comment: 

"Jennie Boal, a purchaser and volunteer at the food bank for the past 10 years, said the 33 seniors who do volunteer work at the food bank "are stepping over each other." 

Jennie Boal's time frame at the time of the article was from 1991 to 2001.

By 2001 the KAFB still served 40 to 60 families per week.

During all that time, they did not provide Holiday Meal Baskets for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

They used to receive food  from the West Side Food Bank in Phoenix, but donations to charitable groups in the Phoenix area were reportedly down since the September 11, 2001  terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington.

Their orders from Phoenix were cut in half since that September and that left them short of food in Kingman.

The Kingman Area Food Bank has never been a government funded organization. 

It has always operated out of donations and grants. 

In it's beginnings, the City of Kingman and the Mohave County helped them through grant programs, but in July of 2001 Mohave County Manager Ron Walker proposed eliminating funding for food banks and other services to lessen the county's continued fiscal crisis, leaving the KAFB in greater need of financial grants and financial and food donations.

For many years after it's creation, the Kingman Area Food Bank functioned entirely with volunteers, even after their registration with the Arizona Corporation Commission.

In 2001 Cecil Groves was the President of the Board of Directors, Arnie Buss (volunteer since 1994) was the Vice president, and Charles Wells was the Treasurer.  

Alberta Buss (Arnie's wife), and Diana Jordan were among other 30+ volunteers who faithfully contributed their time to help the community.

At that time the Board of Directors consisted of 12 Directors.

In 2002 The Kingman Area Food Bank leased land on Buchanan Street as a site for a new and larger building that allowed  them to make application for Community Development Block Grant funds. 

During a Kingman City Council meeting, the city staff was directed to prepare a lease agreement.

The food bank had been operating out of an old city shop near the vacant land.

South Park softball fields and the animal shelter were and still are in the same general area.

Since they operated entirely with volunteers, the City of Kingman denied them the Community Development Block Grant funds because they didn't have "a paid" Executive Director.

In 2003, through fund-raising efforts, the all-volunteer organization dedicated to feeding Kingman's hungry, purchased three frontage lots at 2930 Butler Ave. A small taco shop on one of the lots was remodeled and used as a distribution center, but $30,000 were still needed to complete the inside of the 60 X 90-foot steel metal structure that would serve as the food storage warehouse.

Families needing food were allowed three visits, during which they were given a large box of food, depending on the size of the family. The family could come back to the food bank two more times with a referral from a social organization.

In 2004, the Kingman Area Food Bank was able to raise enough funds to do all the remodels and in 2005 was able to move to where the current Kingman Area Food Bank is located today: 2930 Butler Ave. 

By 2006, Nancy Head, President of the Board of Directors (at the time), said that the KAFB had served up to 70 people per day on the schedule of 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

On October 1, 2006 they opened doors to the public Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am to noon, and they were in need of more volunteers. 

Local schools, the Post Office, the Boy Scouts and charitable organizations like the Elks and Moose Lodges, have conducted food drives for KAFB at different times. 

At the time a monthly delivery of food was received from the Westside Food Bank in Phoenix.

Since moving to that location the utility costs tripled, and they also had to maintain liability insurance, so cash donations have always been needed.

In addition, they paid gas mileage to the volunteers who picked up the donations.

On August 7, 2008, in an article on the Kingman Daily Miner, Betty Kahlor (the acting Executive Director sine 2005, and who had been a volunteer since 2000) said that the Kingman area Food Bank was serving those in need in  Kingman and in the surrounding areas of Golden Valley, Dolan Springs, Chloride, Peach Springs, Hackberry, Valentine and those who were just passing through Kingman.

At that time, they were supported by donated food, donated cash, St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance in Phoenix, Arizona and limited grants.

On December of 2009, local Real Estate Agencies and the Mohave County Sheriff's Office had their annual holiday food drive for the Kingman Area Food Bank. They raised between 25,000 to 30,000 pounds of food for the facility.

More than 60 real estate offices served as drop off-points for donations of non-perishable items.

The offices participated again in 2010, with a slight twist, the Chicago Title agency provided a free lunch for the office that collected the most pounds of food.

The items were then collected by volunteers with the Sheriff's Office posse and delivered to the KAFB.

On February 13, 2012 Executive Director Betty Kahlor  had a note in the Kingman Daily Miner:

"I would like to thank all of the volunteers, the Board of Directors and a special thank you to Operations Manager Cecil Groves and Warehouse Manager Don Martin for an awesome 2011. Our volunteers are the most wonderful, caring people in the world. Because of the dedication and work of these special people, we were able to supply food to 27,332 individuals."

By then KAFB was receiving two Phoenix-based St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance delivery trucks a month. Even though those food loads were significant , KAFB still had to purchase staple foods.  

On April of 2012, St Mary's Food Bank Alliance was made aware of the KAFB need of more and increased their truck deliveries to one truck per week. Of course the increase of deliveries created a need for more shelf space and more volunteers to handle and process them, but as usual, they quickly figured it out. 

On July of 2012 the 14-year KAFB volunteer Albert Ondrovich, who was also a member of the Board of Directors said that the grocery stores had cut way down. Ondrovich, was also a volunteer driver who picked up monthly donations from local grocery stores.

On the evening of November 23, 2014 a pickup truck crashed into the Kingman Area Food Bank leaving a large hole in the building that had to be boarded up and the KAFB was unable to open doors to the public until the support beam that was damaged and the wall were fixed. 

In 2009 the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), approved by the Dist 1 Mohave County Supervisor, granted $40,000.00 to the Kingman Area Food Bank  to purchase a truck to release  the volunteers from using their personal vehicles to do the food pick up. 

According to a newspaper article "on September 2nd the KAFB purchased  a 2009 Ford Econoline E350 Cutaway with a 10-foot Kold King insulated cube and Thermo King refrigerator unit". The cost of the truck was $39,363.96 the rest of the money was used for signage on the truck.

While using the downtown facility, it is calculated that the Kingman Area Food Bank provided food to 15,000 individuals in all that time frame. 

By 2015 (after 10 years in the "new" building) it had served more than 30,100 individuals which  doubled the number served the 10 years prior. 

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2020

In March 2020, when we heard the news of a world wide pandemic that threatened the elderly and children, we closed our doors since 85% of our volunteers were seniors. 

Our Executive Director (at the time) Catherine Walker prayed to God for help in such a time of need. 

The next day, Kingman Central Church called Catherine asking what they could  do to help... 

"Send us volunteers!!" was the answer.

Kingman Central Church's young adult parishioners showed up the first Monday of April 2020 and we were able to restart operations. 

It was the first time we served "drive through" style. No public was allowed inside the building. 

We served the public Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8 am to noon.

Wednesdays and Saturdays we worked behind closed doors to get ahead of ourselves and get ready for the days we opened.

Patricia Koalska was outside talking to the people in their cars, writing out their forms, and taking their information back and forth to "the ladies with the computers". 

Debbie Harms pushed fully loaded shopping carts out of our building and placed them behind the cars letting people load their trunks with food. 

Outside, some volunteers disinfected everything after it was used. 

Inside, the volunteers sorted out produce, barcoded cans, boxes and packages, filled out bags and shopping carts, and got everything ready for Debbie Harms.

Restaurants gave us their food since they had to close doors, as well as restaurant providers. 

All April and May we operated pretty much "on the street", but the Summer heat approached and it was not safe for Patricia Koalska, Debbie Harms and the patrons who waited for hours in their cars, to be outside anymore.

We reopened our doors to the public on the first Monday of June of 2020 following the government regulations. 

Our household intake had increased by 35% and the lines of people waiting outside our building were long. 

Many people brought their camping chairs and umbrellas. 

We provided cold water and popsicles trying to make the Summer months more bearable for them. 

Inside the building was not much better since we only had floor fans available. 

Slowly things got a little better and people started to return to their jobs.

Many of our former volunteers didn't come back but we managed to continue serving the public, and  slowly we grew our volunteer base back.

Some people gave us their whole government stimulus checks. 

They said: "we want to help you with the increased volume of families in need", for that, we will be forever grateful.

On June of 2020, Catherine Walker retired and one of the volunteers from Kingman Central Church, Crystal Rapp, became the Store Manager, a month later Marc McGregor was hired as the New Executive Director. 

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One year later, in 2021, Marc Pardue replaced Marc McGregor who moved out of state, Ryan Garcia had transitioned from Community Service worker to volunteer to Warehouse Manager, and months later Tammy Wolford became the new Store Manager. Tony Holloway had also transitioned from Community Service worker to volunteer to the paid position of Truck Driver. 

Between 2021 and 2022 we upgraded our electric grid, got more refrigerators, walk in freezers, produce refrigerators, a huge warehouse fan, heavy duty warehouse shelves, repaved our parking lot, and added the Thursday afternoon schedule from 4 pm to 6:45 pm.

In 2022, when Marc Pardue moved out of state, Ryan Garcia became the "unofficial" Executive Director. Under the wing of Marc Pardue's mentorship, Ryan finally became the "official" Executive Director on 2023, and Jerry Vives joined the KAFB team as the new  Warehouse Manager. 

In the 30+ years of operations, many volunteers have stepped up to the Executive Director, Warehouse Manager, and Store Manager positions. The list is long and some names escape our minds, while other names are unknown to us.

NOW

In our Board of Directors we have 10 Directors, all volunteers, and all from different backgrounds.

We have 5 people in pay roll: Executive Director, Store Manager, Warehouse Manager, Truck Driver, and Part Time Truck Driver. 

We have 40 - 50 volunteers, plus 30 - 40 community service workers per month.

Our days usually start at 6 am when some of our volunteers and some community service workers come in to start sorting and getting the produce, breads and dry goods (whatever is available) ready for the store shelves.  

St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance has a contract with some local stores in what is called "Food Recovery Program".

Daily we pick up food from Smith's, Basha's, the two Safeway stores and/or Walmart. 

Occasionally Big Lots and CVS Pharmacy donate food and nonfood items. 

When PEPSI and local organizations call that they have large donations, we pick them up as well.

 Our box truck goes out every day except on Thanksgiving day, Christmas day and January 1. 

Our truck driver works 5 days a week, and the part time driver drives 2 days a week. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has consistently delivered to us large amounts of canned goods two or three times per year as well.

We serve between 30 and 130 households per day.

Our clients are allowed to pick up food every 28 days. They get enough food to support them for one week. 

Depending on the family size, one person can go out our door with a full sopping cart. 

They still have to show proof they are residents of the Mohave county, and they (the house head and the people living in the household)  are enrolled in the data base of St Mary's Food Bank Alliance. 

The data base shows all the Food Banks that partner with St Mary's FBA and it shows if the client has picked up food in other food banks -when and where-. 

The Kingman Area Food Bank has been operating under the organizational wings of St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance in Phoenix, Arizona for the last 10+ years.  

Their Gleaning from local farmers program and the grants they get from big corporations enables them to help us even more by sending us 6 truck loads per month. 

We still have to purchase canned and boxed foods. 

On April of 2024,  through the Department of Housing grant, St Mary's Food Bank Alliance gave us a brand new, bigger box truck. We had to upgrade our warehouse door because the truck was taller but it all worked out.

We currently distribute a variety of fresh produce, and canned and pre packed food items. 

The recipient can also select beverages, breads, dry goods, animal food (when available), paper products, and personal hygiene products (when available). 

We also share our fresh produce with several local churches and local charitable organizations like "Tianna's Treasures". 

We still provide produce (what is not good enough for our patrons) to local farmers, homesteads, and animal rescues. 

 From July 2023 to Junr 2024, from our store, we served an average of 1,300 households, which fed approximately 5,200 people in a consistent monthly basis, which added up to the equivalent to 62,400 people in one year. 

That number doesn't include the households that are fed through the churches and organizations we help.

We processed a little over to 2 million pounds of food.

We gave out 11,662 TEFAP boxes. 

We added Wednesdays for Veterans only, and now we open our doors to the public from Monday through Friday at different times. Please refer to our HOURS of operation.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas we gave away a total of  700 Holiday Meal Boxes to cook at home, which included a turkey or a ham plus the fixings.

The Mail Carriers Association National Food Drive "Stamp Out Hunger" every second Saturday of May, brought 18,000 pounds of non perishable food that year. 

Except for May of 2020 and May of 2021, the "Mother of all Food Drives" has been an event that we, at the Kingman Area Food Bank, look forward to. 

It takes us months to sort out, bar code, and store all that food. 

Approximately one fifth of all that food is expired or pre used and has to be thrown away :(

The rest of that food along with the food from local organizations food drives, carries us on to the Holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas; when we are, once more, in dire need of donations.

We continue upgrading our building... 

Thank God now we have much better cooling and heating systems, even in the office!!

The legacy of our founders lives on. 

Our leadership team monitors the day to day operations, and makes sure that all the local businesses and donors know how much we appreciate their generous partnership. 

We can't do it without THEM all.

SPECIAL THANKS

* To Patricia Koalska, volunteer since October of 2018, who was curious and stubborn enough to research all this information and more. 

* To the Mohave Museum of History and Arts'  Research Librarian, Barbara Merritt, and their marvelous ladies for allowing Patricia K to treasure hunt in their archives... and to Jennifer Chambers for sharing her Birthday cake with Patricia :)

* To The Miner, former Kingman Daily Miner, for letting Patricia K know that all their Newspaper archives are available at the Mohave Museum of History and Arts Library. 

* To our  Executive Director Ryan Garcia for his help and patience with Patricia's inquiries, and frustrations.

Patricia's Research was done  in March and April of 2024.