Church donates 24 pallets of food to Community Food Basket
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IDAHO FALLS — Community Food Basket in Idaho Falls will be able to help more families in need following a substantial donation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Tuesday.
The food bank has recently seen a 20 percent increase in families seeking assistance. To meet the demand, it received 42,000 pounds of food from the church.
A truck from Salt Lake City carrying 24 pallets pulled up to the warehouse as volunteers prepared the distribution center on Placer Avenue to help those in need. Helping in the effort, Super T Transport donated their truck and driver for the delivery.
“This is a huge, exciting day,” said Ariel Jackson, incoming executive director for Community Food Basket. “We’re seeing about 350 families more a month, families that have never needed us before, so this food will go a long way to help and support our community.”
John Strobel, a local Latter-day Saint church leader, said the food came from a 570,391-square-foot welfare facility in Salt Lake City owned by the church. The production of the food comes from donations by church members and others to respond to disasters and other needs around the world.
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“We worked together with this organization and various other organizations and other faith groups to bring this about,” Strobel said. “In this time with the coronavirus, everybody is now becoming more connected as a community as we work together as organizations, governments and faith groups to help provide for individuals.”
Donated food included beef stew, flour and canned fruits and vegetables.
Jackson said the donation will last Community Food Basket around two weeks with an average of 4,000 pounds of food going to eastern Idaho families every day.
Although the food bank is unable to accept food donations from the public right now, it can accept monetary donations.
“The thing that is really neat about that is we can take a dollar and buy $4.80 worth of food,” Jackson said. “We don’t have to pay tax because we’re a nonprofit. We buy in bulk from a lot of the grocery stores, so they usually give us a pretty good deal.”
Community Food Basket is open Monday through Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. at 245 North Placer Avenue in Idaho Falls. It operates a drive-thru so people don’t have to get out of their vehicles.
“We’re just seeing massive amounts of families in need right now,” Jackson said. “That’s why we’re here. That’s why we exist … to get people through emergencies, get them through crises, to help them feed their families — that’s just something people shouldn’t have to worry about.”