EIRMC’s 30,000 canned food items collected revealed

The Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center’s 30,000 canned food drive officially ended Thursday.

30,000 cans represents EIRMC’s 30 years of service.

“This is the first time a business — a local business — has reached out to a region-wide effort like this. So yes, we have the National Letter Carrier Drive and the Scout Drive, and each community tends to do those by themselves, but this was something new. The first time ever for a region-wide drive,” said Bud Langerak, the executive director of the Community Food Basket of Idaho Falls.

From Blackfoot to Driggs to Ashton.

“We had 11 food banks that were pre-identified to receive the food. And they were enormous assets to us in getting their own friends, family, community members all across our region to participate,” said EIRMC’s director of marketing and community relations, Coleen Niemann.

“There was a campaign in Blackfoot, to make sure that we got online and clicked and supported the program. So it’s a nice gesture on the part of EIRMC,” said Christian Utley, with the Community Dinner Table in Blackfoot.

The medical center wanted to kick off its 30th year by giving back.

“It takes a team. It takes a lot of people to make something like this work,” Langerak said.

“We asked our employees, physicians, and community members to participate and they came through. We also built a website that allowed anyone to come onto that website, click, and EIRMC would buy cans for them,” Niemann said.

“It’s a nice influx. This time of year, a lot of the supplies are diminished with the holidays. So this influx of food is important,” Utley said.

The Community Food Basket of Idaho Falls’ warehouse will distribute the 11 food banks’ share of the cans starting at the end of next week.