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Food distributed in Blackfoot |
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Wednesday, 25 November 2009 |
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By LESLIE MIELKE
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BLACKFOOT — Once a month, food from the Idaho Food Bank is distributed through Catholic Charities of Idaho (CCI) at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Blackfoot.  (The Morning News—Leslie Mielke) Jake Jones from Catholic Charities of Idaho helps unload the semi-truck from the Idaho Food Bank. One hundred twenty families received food Monday.
The CCI normally distributes food on the fourth Thursday of each month. However, this week food was distributed Monday ahead of Thanksgiving. Next month, the CCI and the Lutheran Church will distribute food on Tuesday, Dec. 22, at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, near Walmart.
Six years ago CCI gave food to 40 families, CCI Regional Director Kathleen Hall said. Now, 110 to 120 families receive help from CCI each month.
“I think people are under-employed,” Hall said. “They’ve lost their second job or their son needed to move back home; this just helps get them to the next month,” Hall said.
“South East Idaho Community Action Agency (SEICAA) does a wonderful job; this brings another food source into the community,” Hall said.
Nearly 8,000 pounds of food was delivered to St. Bernard’s Monday morning. When distributing the food, Hall divides the commodity by the number of families to be served. For example, if 120 dozen eggs were delivered, that number divided by 120 families means each family receives one dozen eggs.
Food is distributed on a first come, first served basis, Hall said.
The food is set out on tables in St. Bernard’s Parish Hall like a grocery store. The number of items that can be selected in each group are marked, such as two bakery items, one turkey, one meat, one potatoes and one bleach.
“We’ve fine-tuned this over the years,” Hall said.
People bring their own boxes, she said. About 20 volunteers assist people as they select their groceries.
“Since we’ve started this system,” Hall said, “we have not run out of food.”
“This is fun,” said volunteer Nita Lane from Pingree. “We’ve done this for a long time now.”
Her dad, Mike Palmer, heads up the volunteers. “In six years, we’ve almost trebled the number of families we serve and it’s all by word of mouth,” he said.
“Everyone working here is a volunteer,” Palmer said. “They put their time in.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 26 November 2009 )
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