North Valley Food Bank sees big jump in service

North Valley Food Bank last October expanded its service hours, hoping to serve more working people who couldn’t come by during the day, and that’s exactly what’s happened.

Food Bank Executive Director Jessy Lee said the response has been huge.

“We saw an immediate 25 percent increase in services,” she said. “From January 2019 versus January 2020 we saw a 30 percent increase. I think we anticipated it on a theoretical level, but now living it, it’s making a big impact on how we operate. And I don’t see it slowing down.”

The food bank, which offers emergency food services to people from the Whitefish area and outlying communities including Eureka, Rexford, Olney and Trego, is now open for distribution on Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 3 p.m.

In January, the food bank distributed 39,000 pounds of food to its patrons and composted 2,000 pounds, and compared to the previous January provided 619 more people with food.

More changes are coming, Lee says.

The first is a change in how food is handed out to users of the food bank.

The food bank has always been a prepackaged model, where those accessing services sign up and receive a box with different foods already selected for them, but soon the food bank will switch to a pantry model, allowing those using the food bank to select their own food, offering more flexibility.

“It just offers a different degree of dignity. People can come pick out the foods that work for their families,” Lee said. “I anticipate that shift will also increase our distribution, just because folks realize they’ll have better access to the foods they need.”

Lee added that they’re expecting more people staying for longer in the food bank with the pantry model, which may require further changes to distribution hours down the road.

Along with the pantry model, the food bank is also adding a commercial kitchen, which will help with food preparation and preservation.

“That will encompass some new programming,” Lee noted. “We hope to partner with restaurants in town to rescue unused food, then we’ll come back and repackage it into a kind of TV dinner type meal, so folks have ready to eat food to take with them.”

Having the kitchen might also allow the food bank to extend produce from the growing season, such as ordering more broccoli than in years past and blanching and freezing it. That would allow distribution of vegetables frozen when fresh much later than usual, Lee said.

Lee also wants to make it easier for those who use the food bank to get more consistent help from public services such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The food bank hopes to add two resource offices where volunteers can help people sign up for these benefits.

“We will train our volunteers to know how to administer SNAP applications, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) [benefits], Montana Low Income Energy Assistance Program — any type of public assistance where people might not have access to those resources because we’re in a rural community,” Lee explained. “I’ve talked to several clients who have said, ‘Gosh, I would love to be able to sign up for SNAP benefits, but I have to drive to Kalispell, spend a half a day waiting at the office of public assistance.’ So we’re hoping to reduce those barriers to supplemental services.”

Expansion at the food bank wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of the community, Lee pointed out, and she’s been grateful for the support they’ve received.

The food bank is also preparing a new fundraising campaign to help with the commercial kitchen and a new box truck.

“Our community has responded really well. A lot of our corporate donors have all but doubled their donations in the last year, and I’m doing a lot of outreach to donors and more media outreach so that folks know what’s going on here,” she says. “People have responded really well.”

In addition to their regular distribution hours, the food bank provides emergency walk-in services during normal business hours.

For more information go to www.northvalleyfoodbank.org or call at 862-5863.