PET OF BULLHEAD CITY AND SURROUNDING AREAS COULD GO HUNGRY IF WE ARE NOT ABLE TO FIND A NEW LOCATION BEFORE FEBRUARY 28, 2026.
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So I once again, with a heavy heart, and a slightly panicked heart, I am reaching out to the community to find a place for Food 4 Paws Pet Pantry, Inc. through no fault of our own.
We have until February 28th, 2026 to move out of our current space.
We will be having February’s Pantry Day, tho we might move it back a week, since Pantry Day & our last day both fall on the 28th.
We are a fully compliant, insured 501(c)(3) nonprofit and we can offer a tax donation receipt in lieu of paying rent. You see, we do get small grants here and there and we do have fundraisers, but not to the extent like a bigger nonprofit gets that would allow us to pay commercial rental spaces.
We began our journey 12 years ago at what was called the Suddenlink Community Center back when no one knew it existed, let alone where it was. We were there for 10 years. After a conversation with friends in April 2014 we were able to secure a donation of 700 lbs of pet food and in June of 2014 we fed the pets of 5 households. And it has not slowed down. In fact the following year in June of 2015 we helped 25 households. Fast forward to 2025 and our biggest month was December with 45 households! All of this has been a community effort. Our core volunteers do the donation pick-ups, organize everything by date & intake date to ensure proper rotation of first in first out to prevent loss of food. But without community donations none of this would have continued. And 3 times when we have been blessed with 4,600, 6,000 and 7,000 pounds of pet food at one time, people stepped up to help us unload it and organize into our space. When we have needed volunteers to help with an event we were putting or even when we were attending other events as a vendor, people came and in all kinds of weather. Bullhead City and surrounding county areas have rallied around this mission of “Keeping pets with their families thru the tough times”. Having spent more than two decades in the pet rescue world, I know first-hand the stress that dogs and cats experience learning to adapt to a new family. And if food is the reason someone might surrender their beloved pet, we have chosen to take that decision out of the equation so both pet and human have less stress.
Initially my business paid the very cheap, very affordable rent that included all utilities. When the redesign of the SCC happened, we somehow were not included in the new plan.
After a call to the public about 14 months ago, much like this one, a very amazing lady offered us the space we are in now. And so we moved and readjusted things and began the drive thru style we have now. Seniors and others with mobility struggles don’t even have to get out of their cars. It has been a good thing for our clients and us really. We have been in our current space, or will be, for 15 months.
It has been a blessing and a struggle due to the very small size. BUT when you’re blessed with a gift you make it work. When we say we need between 400-500 square feet, this is why:
The ladies that pack the individual family boxes, and hand the food out the next day working their rear ends off in this tiny space. Currently, the ladies have to pack the first half of the orders and put them in their cars to take them home overnight and bring them back the next day, unload and organize the orders outside until the family come to pick up their order. The rest of the orders are in collapsible citrus boxes that are stacked up four and five high around the inside of our space. Then it all has to be kind of moved around depending on who’s coming to pick up food, no one comes in 1, 2, 3 order as the list is laid out. These ladies handle each order at least 3 times, 4 if your count putting the order together. Others may be handled 5 and 6 times. And when there is a no show, they get to put it all back on the shelves.
It is NOT about more volunteers because there is barely enough room for 2 people inside the space. If you have ever received pet food from us, know that these ladies take home the treats and re-bag them at home when they should be relaxing. Our current space only allows 1 person to be there when rebaging large and/or broken commercial bags of dog or cat kibble (dry food). Keep in mind that we, with stock rotation, maintain at least 1 month worth of kibble or most times more. When you think about the 50 lbs, 44 lbs, 35 lbs bags, no matter how you stack them, they take up a lot of space. We have food donations that come in throughout the month, but I would say we probably house around 1,000 to 2,000 lbs of cat and dog kibble/dry food. That doesn’t count the shelving for the canned food (both dog & cat), and the cat litter.
When I started Food 4 Paws back in 2014 that space was approximately 500ft and gave us ample space to lay out the boxe, fill everybody’s order custom to what their household needs and still be able to move around without tripping. If we stayed around the 400 sq ft that would still probably be doable and a lot more than we have now.
I would like to give you some numbers to share with you just how much are we have grown. Starting with June of 2014 with five households and by the next year in June we multiply that by 5 with a total of 25 households! We’ve had some years where we’ve gone up really high, like when we absorbed the clients of another organization that decided to keep their focus on pet rescue and spay/neuter and pass the pet food duties to us. And sometimes it’s been a little bit of up and down throughout the year. Certain years like 2020, 2021, and part of 2022 the numbers stayed higher for a while. But by mid-2022 we generally averaged around 25-30 household requested picked up. Now in 2025 we just came off our 2nd largest month ever but the largest month in last 2 years. December 2025 had 45 households request pet food, with 41 households picking up their pet food. Most of 2025 our months are averaging around 34 households that are picking up food every month. That’s NOT the pet count that is only the household count.
This year we gave out just over 7,000 lbs of dog kibble and almost 1,800 lbs in cat kibble. That does not count the can food that we give when we have it, or the cat litter that we give, when we have it. We are a small group of volunteers, 7 in total right now, with big hearts serving the pets in our community when their families are going thru tough times.
If you have any questions, or would like to speak with our President/Founder, that’s me, Brenda, you can send a PM thru our FB page (www.facebook.com/food4pawspetpantry), or call/text our cell ph 928-310-7387 (if you text please start by introducing yourself with your name). I work full time, so text is easier and quicker for me to be able to “talk” between customers. Some days are busier than other and I do work every Saturday and Sunday.