Several food banks in the Treasure Valley are running low on supplies and are asking for your help.
The St. Vincent de Paul Southwest Idaho Food Bank at 3209 W. Overland Road in Boise is 8% full, Development Director Mareesa Rule told the Idaho Statesman. That equates to four pallets of food. Fifty pallets are needed each week to meet the community’s demand.
The food bank serves about 900 families per month, said Brandon Weast, the food bank’s manager. In 2023, the average number of households served per month was 694, Rule said.
“We’re feeding more people than we did in the past, and we have less food to do it with,” Rule said.
On the first Tuesday in June, 80 households searched for food from the pantry, including nine families that were new to the pantry. On the second Tuesday in July, 144 households, including 23 new families, searched for food. The average household consists of 3.6 people, Rule said.
The pantry hasn’t seen such high numbers of visitors since the start of the pandemic. “All of a sudden, we skyrocketed,” Weast said.
Food bank reduces the amount of food it gives to households
The St. Vincent de Paul pantry has reduced the amount of food it provides, Rule said. “We’re trying to keep it going as much as we can,” Rule said.
With schools closed and kids not getting lunches from schools, the need for food increases during the summer. “It’s a huge strain on families,” Rule said.
Many families who are struggling to make it through the month visit the food bank, Rule said. The amount of food available and the number of visits fluctuates throughout the year. But the food bank has seen many families who are having a child for the first time and are in need of food.
People in need are allowed to visit the food bank once a month to ensure St. Vincent can feed as many people as possible, Weast said.
The last time the food bank had enough food to feed everyone in need was likely in the fall of 2023, Rule said.
The reduction in inventory is due to lower supplies from community partners such as The Idaho Foodbank. Other partners supporting the food bank include El-Ada Community Action and local businesses such as Gaston’s Bakery and Utz Chips.
Randy Ford, president and CEO of The Idaho Foodbank, told the Statesman that the nonprofit is facing higher costs for purchasing and transporting food.
““This comes at a time when we have had a decline in donations and an increase in need,” Ford said by email.According to the latest Map the Meal Gap report, 11.4% of Idahoans are food insecure and unfortunately this data aligns with the increased need we are seeing in Idaho. The goal of the Idaho Foodbank is to keep our food distribution levels as high as possible while managing the increased cost of food and the need for food from our partner food banks across the state.”
According to the Idaho Foodbank website, free food is provided to more than 400 rescues, church food banks, emergency shelters and community kitchens.
The St. Vincent Food Bank sometimes receives only a fraction of the orders it places with partners. Weast said food providers try to maintain “equal access” to many food banks.
All food banks in the valley are being told the same thing, Rule said.
“The need is growing and we have to figure out how we are going to feed everyone,” Rule said.
Rule said that Gaston’s Bakery and Utz Chips have been “critical” to St. Vincent de Paul and “go beyond expectations.” “There is no shortage on their side,” Rule said.
Pantry operates in a food desert
St. Vincent’s food banks in Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell and Mountain Home are also struggling.
Boise’s St. Vincent pantry — the largest in the city, according to director Ralph May — is in dire need of everything. “Boxes are empty, hoping to be filled,” Rule said.
The area where the food bank is located, between Vista Avenue and Roosevelt Street, is a “food desert” — an area where people have limited access to healthy, nutritious and affordable food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Food distributions take place from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays and Fridays. Boise’s pantry operates a drive-through model, and people typically begin lining up around 8 a.m. for distributions starting at 10 a.m., when volunteers assemble food boxes and bring them to vehicles.
The Grocery Alliance Program, which includes stores like Albertsons and Costco, also supplies the pantry with items that are overstocked or removed from store shelves.
The stores supply the pantry with many deli, dairy and bakery items that have a short shelf life, Weast said.
The extremely limited amount of non-perishable food provided by partners, combined with the increasing need, is of great concern, Rule said.
About 90% of the food provided to the food bank comes from partners, while the remaining 10% comes from community donations, Rule said.
how you can help
People can donate non-perishable items such as rice, pasta, beans, cereal, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, tuna and peanut butter. Donations are accepted from 9 a.m. to noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Financial donations are used to purchase food in bulk, pay rent and utilities for the pantry space, and pay transportation costs for food delivery and pick-up.
Community members can volunteer to make boxes and sort food on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9am to 12pm. On distribution days, they can also help register visitors.
The St. Vincent Pantry is receiving a lot of hygiene products thanks to a new partnership with Amazon, which allows them to get returns or excess inventory, Weast said.
What is desperately needed is food. Weast said he hasn’t seen a large amount of peanut butter in the building in more than a year. “We used to have pallets and pallets and pallets,” he said.
Rice used to be a product that they also got in large quantities, but it has now become scarcer.
“I’m sure most people in our neighborhood and community know someone who would benefit from this food bank,” Rule said. “Helping is something that’s within their reach.”
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