Community Food Basket’s food drive hopes to collect 100,000 pounds of food
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)- The Community Food Basket in Idaho Falls is currently running its annual month-long food drive.
Drop-off locations throughout the week are at the Ammon Broulim's, Sam's Club, and Albertson's locations, with a Saturday drop-off location at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chapel located on Sunnyside and Holmes.
The Food Basket is hoping to collect 100,000 pounds of food. Currently after two weeks of donations, people have brought almost 25% of that.
"So far after this last weekend, we're sitting at 22,000 lbs. We've got a ways to go. But I'm confident that we'll get there," Ariel Jackson the Executive Director for the Community Food Basket.
The Food basket serves 1,500 families a month, they hope the food they collect will last them until February.
The Scouting Program is playing a role in the food drive this month and will be having some food collection spots in Pocatello for more on that you can come here.
The Scouting For Food used to help the Community Food Basket a lot with large donations. But since the partnership between the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ended those donations have gone down. COVID also impacted donations. That's why the month-long food drive came to be.
"About 5 or six years ago, the scout drive would bring in about 60,000 lbs of food. And now we're seeing it between six and 8,000 lbs, which is why it's really great that they have joined on to this big food drive that we're doing to help support our efforts," Jackson said.
Many other local groups have stepped up as well to help the Community Food basket reach its goal.
"The Just Serve group that's part of the LDS Church really helps us put this drive on. They provide a lot of volunteers to help us bring in the food. A lot of the church organizations in town host food drives for us, and it all comes into a central location where we can count towards our total pounds. The INL, Melaleuca, and a lot of local businesses step in and help us as well," Jackson said.
