Azure Standard
Who we are
Azure is a different kind of company born of a different mindset and held to a different standard. You know us as a natural health food distributor bringing bulk and specialty health foods to communities all across the nation. But at our core, we are a family (plus friends who might as well be family!) with a dedication to share what we have learned and provide other families with the highest standard of whole foods at affordable prices. We believe that everyone should have access to high-quality, organic, non-GMO foods to live long, strong, meaningful lives.
We are also different in how we bring food to you. Instead of using a middle man or expensive shipping, we make it affordable to pick up all your groceries, even bulk quantities, at one of our community delivery drop sites. You can use our Community Drop Locator to find a local pickup in your area, also known as drop locations.
How we started
Azure was founded by David Stelzer, but our company started as a natural extension of his family’s twenty-year journey of healing through dietary and lifestyle changes. After converting their farm from conventional to all organic, the Stelzers experienced radical and lasting improvements in their health and became convinced that organic eating was the key to healthy living. This began our commitment to organic farming long before it was widespread.
The family began to share and sell the products they raised with other health-minded people in their local community. As those customers asked for more foods and demand grew, Azure branched out by sourcing high-quality natural products from other companies. Over time, we became the full-service distributor we are today! Learn more about our history by reading David Stelzer's story and Azure Farm's timeline.
Our principles
We at Azure are convinced that the key to a healthy society begins with healthy people who are committed to healthy foods and a healthy lifestyle. Over the years, we realized how expensive it could get for families to eat well, and we committed to making it as affordable as possible. We do this by offering bulk sizes of many staple products. We nurture long-lasting relationships with our suppliers, who give us great prices because they know they can trust and depend on us. They also give us better quality products because they know our mission is to spread healthy food far and wide and to share information about growing, cooking, and eating well.
We have always sought to effect positive change by doing the right thing, even if it is not the typical way a business is run. We are dedicated to our principles: wecare about supporting families as they strive towards healthy and abundant living. You can see how we live out our beliefs in our core values.
How we do what we do
Our commitment to bringing healthy foods to everyone at affordable prices means we deliver directly to neighborhoods. We sell to families and individuals across the country, and we also provide quality products to small mom-and-pop shops and retailers, as we did at the start of our business back in the 1980s. It is expensive to ship items, particularly cold and frozen products, to individual homes across America, so we found a better way. We use full-size, refrigerated trucks, and we created a system to deliver to communities just about everywhere in the United States. Many of our customers partner with us by volunteering to receive community food deliveries at their chosen locations. This opens the way for you to pick up your order at one of our community drop delivery locations convenient for you. Azure’s delivery structure makes it affordable for you to stock your kitchen with bulk, frozen, and fresh products (which we believe are all essential for good health). It also fosters the growth of a health-focused community. (For those who want delivery direct to your home, we offer an option to ship orders directly to you.)
Our routes were built gradually by customer requests over the years. Today we have over 2,600 pickup locations in communities across almost the entire United States, in rural and urban areas. We continue to add new delivery locations each month, so if one is not available near you, please consider starting your own!
What else do we do?
What began as a small organic farm has grown as we found more ways to meet the needs of those who are enthusiastic about eating well. We are still dedicatedto organic farming – our farm has spread to about 4,000 acres and has diversified! We now grow an assortment of ancient grains, beans, fruits, fresh produce, and specialty seeds, as well as the grain and cattle we started with. Over the years, we expanded our operation to do our own processing. We mill our grain using our special Unifine mill to supply you with the finest flours you can find anywhere. We also package many products in small and large quantities, make our own mixes, pack our fruits and vegetables, and manufacture our unique carob products. We grow and package our own line of garden seeds to preserve and improve the availability of heirloom varieties. We developed our own brand of green cleaning supplies and other products. Most recently, we started our own trucking company to serve our customers better! We are always innovating and learning how to do more with less.
How we choose our products
Our products are carefully chosen to be sure they meet our high standards. David Stelzer, our CEO, and others on our team personally select, approve, and sample every item we add to our inventory. We examine the supply line for each product, and we require our vendors to guarantee every ingredient is non-GMO. You can be confident that when you order from Azure, every product you buy meets a high standard of quality. To verify that our standards align with yours, we invite you to find our list of unacceptable ingredients.
Our team
What began as a small family venture has become a growing team dedicated to healthy and abundant living. The Stelzer family who began this journey decades ago still forms the core of all we do here at Azure, but we are blessed with a group of great people who share our values.
In closing
We are filled with gratitude for the bountiful health we enjoy and we want to make it easier for everyone to experience the joy of living healthy, full lives through eating organic, natural foods. We have lived and learned – and we want to share.
We welcome you to explore our 12,000+ products. We are glad you found us and we look forward to bringing affordable, high-quality, healthful foods to you and your community!
