Everyone deserves a Seat at the Table: Idaho Foodbank fundraiser highlights growing hunger in our communities

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – As food and housing prices continue to rise, hunger is increasingly an uninvited guest at family dinner tables in Idaho.

"You're not going to do your best work if you don't have any food. And if from a parent perspective, if you're going home and you have kids at home and a family to feed and there's not enough there, same thing – everybody suffers," said Idaho Foodbank Board Member Julie McMurtrey. "So we help make that basic need.”

283,630 Idahoans don’t have enough food to eat, according to the Idaho Foodbank. One in six Idaho kids do not have access to reliable food.

Here in eastern Idaho’s 16 counties, 20,640 kids or 17 percent are food insecure.

"So we serve over 200,000 individuals each month throughout the year and this last fiscal year, we delivered enough food for 22 million meals, and that's 26.5 million pounds of food," said Idaho Foodbank President and CEO Randy Ford.

The Idaho Foodbank hosted its annual fundraiser Thursday at Snake River Landing to raise food insecurity awareness and remind that everyone deserves a seat at the table.

With a distribution center in Pocatello, the Idaho Foodbank supplies much of the food for the Community Food Basket Idaho Falls, Idaho Falls Rescue Mission and Valley Mission in Pocatello.

"We serve all 44 counties in the state, but we're community anchored. We have a branch in Pocatello, and we serve eastern Idaho. We serve 45,000 people a month [in this region] through our partner agencies that we have," Ford explained.

The Idaho Foodbank is a non-profit, and is not government-funded, relying instead on the donations of individuals and corporations, Ford said.

The Foodbank partners with more than 400 agencies across the state to help meet critical food needs.

93 percent of all donations go directly to food and programs, according to its website.

To learn more about how you can contribute, volunteer or make a difference, visit idahofoodbank.org.