Idaho Falls Community Food Basket is now in a new location
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - After seven months of hard work, the Idaho Falls Community Food Basket has unveiled the completed renovations to its new building. The building is at 351 W 14th Street in Idaho Falls.
The Food Basket received the building as a donation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now, they hope the renovations they have done will be a big help.
"We're a little nervous, but I think that the patrons are really going to enjoy it. I think the community will enjoy it and the volunteers will too," Community Food Basket Executive Director Ariel Jackson said.
She said of the many changes they have made to the building, one stands out above the rest.
"The biggest one currently is that our patrons don't have to wait outside anymore to get their food. They were waiting in extreme heat and in extreme cold, and we were having to provide heaters and water and those kinds of things to kind of make it through the weather. So at this point, all the patrons will be in the building."
They also removed the carpet from the old gym section of the old church building. Making it a hard floor to help support the shelves. The design of the distrubition center is similar to that of a grocery store. Jackson says the hope is that this will help patrons feel more confident.
"It's sort of a shopping style so that a volunteer will walk around with the patrons and they can pick the food that they're going to take home so that they know their families will eat it versus us picking it for them and hoping that they can use it."
The bigger space inside the building will also be a boon for the volunteers.
"It'll be a lot easier for us as volunteers to move things and move things out. We've got a kitchen facility here now that we can sort through the produce and glean out the good from the bad. It was really difficult to do before because we were just kind of in a back hallway doing that at the old distribution center," Dan Kahl said.
Kahl said by being able to have the space they have, and the deign of the shelves they should be able to cut down on food waste.
"It's such a blessing for us to be able to take what the grocery stores and the bakeries in our community are willing to give us. And then to redistribute it to the community so that it doesn't go to waste. The thousands of pounds of food a week get redistributed here. On an average Monday. We might have easily 75 to 100 families that come through, and they're coming through this food basket from Arco in Blackfoot, Rexburg, Saint Anthony, in addition to right here and the Bonneville County."
The hours of the new distribution center for the community food bakset will not be affected by this move. Those hours are, "Mondays from 3 to 5. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, from 4 to 5 and Thursday from 5 to 6, that's when our volunteers are available to walk people through. And so we want to just keep it the same, so we don't throw anybody off."
