Humanitarian Center Aims For Inter-Faith Organization

The Idaho Falls Area Humanitarian Center is expanding. It has been serving the community from the Idaho Falls LDS South Stake Center. The new location is off Yellowstone in the Fred Meyer shopping complex.

The building is still under construction but center organizers hope to have it open and running by mid August.

Construction is moving on this 20,000 square foot building. Framing still needs completion and the smell of fresh paint is in the air.

The Idaho Falls Area Humanitarian Center serves more than 80 organizations in the Upper Snake River Valley.

Volunteers make everything from quilts, to hand-painted children’s toys.

They also put together school kits for children in head start programs and newborn kits for mothers.

Mark Nelson, who has been with the center for more than four years said those who benefit from their services usually pay it forward.

“They feel the spirit here of service and then they drag somebody here, and that’s really the exciting thing because then we hope the day comes, we hope the day comes, that we have a young mother who receives the quilt a newborn quilt and she gets on her feet and she brings her friends here to help the people that were in the situation that she was in,” said Nelson.

The center is backed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but as the organization grows, the church will be weaning away its help.

The goal is to have this place be an all-inclusive inter-faith center where people from all backgrounds can benefit.