A New Chapter for Our Agency Shopping Center

Exciting news: Flagstaff Family Food Center has secured funding to expand and upgrade our Agency Shopping Center (ASC)! This will allow us to dramatically increase the amount of food we can provide to partner agencies in northern Arizona.

We’ve made substantial improvements in the past year to expand capacity in our Kitchen and the food box distribution program. Even with these changes, there inevitably are gaps in our direct services. Some neighbors simply can’t make it to our distribution sites due to lack of transportation or time.

That’s where the Agency Shopping Center comes in.  We pick up or receive food, sort it, stock it, and stage an area where our community partners like Northland Family Help Center or the Salvation Army can pick it up to use in their programs.

Exciting Improvements for the Agency Shopping Center

As our Vice President Ceara Chirovsky puts it: “Food access means meeting people where they are – whether at a veterans center, a domestic violence shelter, or a high school. Hunger and food insecurity have a wide reach. With our new Agency Shopping Center, so will we.”

Last year alone, more than 45 partner organizations received 240,000 pounds of food through this program. With the new investment, we will revamp our smaller warehouse on Huntington Drive to fully realize the potential of the ASC.

We anticipate that we’ll be able to more than double the number of nonprofits we serve! This includes the increase of annual food distribution to as much as 1.5 million pounds. 

The improvements to the ASC will also create a more dignified and efficient experience for our nonprofit partners. This includes more time to “shop” for what they need, to easier logistics and better staging. These changes will help strengthen our local food ecosystem.

FFFC Board Chair Sylvia Johnson emphasized this point: “We value our partner agencies and the tremendous services they provide throughout the community. The Agency Shopping Center will make the process at the Flagstaff Family Food Center an easier, more positive experience. The added benefit of freeing up space to ensure the main warehouse is operating at peak efficiency.” Work on this project is slated to begin after the City of Flagstaff completes its sidewalk repair project on Huntington Drive later this summer.