Idaho Food Bank receives $110,000 donation
Some good news, if not food for thought, is on the horizon for folks in parts of rural eastern Idaho: the Idaho Food Bank will now be able to deliver right to them.
This is all thanks to a $110,000 donation from the Portneuf Health Care Foundation and CHC on Tuesday afternoon.
Idaho Food Bank’s Eastern Idaho Branch Manager Rebecca Ristrem said the money went toward purchasing a new truck for its Mobile Pantry program, where it can now deliver food to people living in rural areas who once had trouble accessing these types of food resources.
“This is our new 10-pallet truck and we are just so excited,” Ristrem said, standing next to the new unit. “This will now enable us to go into those rural communities with more fresh and perishable food.”
Currently, the food bank relies on volunteers such as Dan Stapleton, who travels all the way from Downey to load thousands of pounds of food onto the back of his trailer every month to take down to the Bannock County Fairgrounds so those in need can stop by and take whatever they need to feed their families.
“Today we are moving about 13-to-14 thousand pounds of food but last month we had a 53-foot semi which was completely full,” Stapleton said. “That’s about 20,000 pounds of food. Today, we’ll be taking about five truckloads out to the fairgrounds so people can eat.”
These volunteers use their own trucks, their own fuel, and their own resources to make sure people are getting this food.
Ristrem said the local food bank moves roughly 300,000 pounds of food each month to nearby communities in southeast Idaho.
“And guess what we did in November and December? 864,000 pounds in just those two months,” she added. “Just in eastern Idaho.”
But with that volume of food that needs to be moved out to communities for people who might be struggling to eat, these truck beds are working at capacity but just not doing what the new vehicle can do.
Portneuf Health Care Foundation CEO Shaun Menchaca said this is the first time the foundation partnered with the food bank since the food bank has made efforts to ensure folks are getting healthier foods, not just what comes stored in a can, anymore.
“The idea of us being able to invest in a capacity-building program that delivers healthy food out to folks that need it was an exciting thing for us to consider,” Menchaca said.
Ristrem also said this new truck will help the food bank with its Grocery Alliance Program, where they pick-up healthy foods close to their expiration dates from local grocers. This new truck will be able to get all of that food out en masse before they expire.
