Community-minded Food Resource Center idea would strengthen fresh food access
Volunteer Carol Lightbody packs boxes of food prior to a recent food distribution day at the North Valley Food Bank in Whitefish. The North Valley Food Bank and the Farm Hands organizations are hoping to come together to form a Food Resource Center in Whitefish in the future. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
North Valley Food Bank volunteers prepared boxes of food prior to a recent food distribution day at the food bank in Whitefish. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Last year when the pandemic challenged the country’s food chain, people across the country and here locally were finding it difficult to buy fresh produce, meat and other needed food sources.
Meat processing plants closed, people cooking at home emptied store shelves of flour, yeast and sugar, and farmers with an abundance of crops had little way to get it into the hands of those who needed it. These issues showed how fragile the current food supply chain is in the country and highlighted the importance of localizing food production and processing, according to two Flathead Valley nonprofits.
To address issues related to food insecurity, North Valley Food Bank and Farms Hands - Nourish the Flathead have come forward with a concept to create a Food Resource and Education Center in Whitefish.
“I think this is like a long term discussion that we’ll keep exploring…” NVFB director Sophie Albert told the Pilot. “I think it would be important for Whitefish. And I think Whitefish would be a great place for a project like this because people are very supportive. It would support local farmers, and be a good community knowledge and education space as well.”
Albert and Farm Hands director Gretchen Boyer work closely together to address food insecurity in the Flathead Valley. Both organizations saw a stark uptick in people using their services since the start of the pandemic, and especially during the initial stay-at-home order in the spring of 2020. And those increases, as well as the food supply chain issues during Covid, spurred the organizations to more seriously discuss the possibility of a food resource center.
Farm Hands saw a 91% increase in the need for its weekend backpack program for school-aged children and around a 24% increase in the use of its Farmers Market Food for All Program, according to Boyer.
Albert says the number of people utilizing the food bank’s services tripled over the last two years. In 2019 the food bank had around 1,300 clients and in 2020 that number jumped up to nearly 4,500; it now continues to be at an all-time high.
The NVFB also distributed “Farmers to Families” boxes, which included fresh produce, dairy products and meat, as part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Albert says this was well received by the food bank’s clients and it is obvious that there is a real need for fresh and nutritious food.
“We really had a long discussion on how to address food supply chain issues that we are seeing during COVID and also how to get more fresh and healthy food to our community,” Albert said. “There’s a lot of stigma around people coming to the food bank and needing food assistance — people not eating fresh and healthy foods — but that’s not true. Fresh and healthy food is really what people want and also deserve, but often they cannot afford it unfortunately.”
The Food Resource Center is an idea to have a central hub available to the entire community that would provide services such as increased capacity to grow, process, store and distribute local food. It would also have expanded meat processing capacity.
The center would also act as a community education hub in regards to sourcing local food. Some ideas it might include are a demonstration farm, indoor growing space, a community seed library, a nonprofit incubator space, community wild game processing, equipment to process locally grown produce and a large warehouse with cold storage.
Both Albert and Boyer emphasize that this would not only serve low-income households, but the entire community with its broad range of uses.
“We need to localize our food systems so that we aren’t going to be subject to issues of foodborne pathogens or Covid issues where huge plants have to shut down,” Boyer recently told the Pilot. “Our thought is that if we can have a place that can store, process and help mitigate those issues that we’re going to be a healthier community.”
Although Boyer says she’s been thinking about a local food resource center for years, just recently she and Albert started talking to potential community partners about the idea. They are keeping an eye out for potential properties that would fit the specific needs of this center and gathering interest from the community at this time.
Recently Albert and Boyer came before the Whitefish City Council to present their idea and request some funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. Council said while they liked the proposal, the city is prioritizing using some of its $2 million in ARPA funds for affordable housing. Council also suggested organizers look for other funding sources because they would likely need more money than could come from the city’s ARPA funds, and then return to the city for assistance as the plan is developed more.
“We will keep your request in mind as we evaluate funds,” Councilor Frank Sweeney said. “We appreciate your bringing this forward because if you hadn’t we couldn’t have put it in the hopper.”
This food resource center for now is an idea, a concept that NVFB and Farm Hands both are committed to exploring. And both believe the entire Flathead Valley community would benefit from localizing food production and processing.
For more information about the NVFB or Farm Hands and the programs they currently offer visit https://www.northvalleyfoodbank.org or https://nourishtheflathead.org.
