New mural creates welcoming environment in choice model food bank

Nearly one year ago the North Valley Food Bank completed its remodel and opened a choice model pantry that resembles a regular grocery store.

Since completing the remodel, the opportunities for the food bank to connect with its customers and offer more community outreach and programming have expanded immensely. Even while keeping up with its ever-growing customer base, North Valley Food Bank also added food education programming, community dinners, cooking classes, meal kits and more opportunities throughout the past year.

None of these additions would have been possible without completing the remodel that opened up the space for the grocery store concept, created a commercial kitchen and expanded food storage areas.

“We’ve gotten to know people and their kids that come in weekly,” said Lauren Jarrold, NVFB Director of Operations. “There’s just a lot more community and connection under this model as opposed to a box model where somebody is passing through the line for about five minutes.”

The choice model invites customers to spend more time in the food bank, which is wonderful for creating a sense of community, says Jarrold. Along with that, NVFB staff wanted to make the space feel more inviting to people immediately upon entering the building. To do this the food bank partnered with KALICO Art Center in Kalispell to run a contest that would award one artist the opportunity to paint a mural inside North Valley Food Bank.

Bozeman-based artist Alyssa Shaw, owner of Hikingbird Creative, won the competition with the mural she designed combining the ideas of food and community. She says the competition required the mural to be food related but also read the NVFB mission was to destigmatize coming to a food bank.

“There’s no specific type of person that comes into a food bank. Everybody has times of abundance and times where they just need a helping hand — helping hands, that kind of stuck in my head,” Shaw said.

Shaw added that she chose bright colors and a fun design that was focused on community and bringing joy into the space. She also tied in the natural landscapes of Whitefish, making it specific to the area.

“I hope that it’s very welcoming…” she said regarding what she hopes it offers to the community.

The customers, volunteers and staff at the food bank are all thrilled with the new addition that brightens up the space.

“It’s a beautiful mural and it added just what we wanted – a splash of color and character,” Jarrold said. “The design that she chose is so perfect for the vision that we had of food and community.”

Jarrold explained that when they were researching the choice model concept, they saw the Missoula Food Bank which has walls covered in bright paint colors, and thought something similar would help their mission.

“We just felt like we could make it more of a welcoming community space…” Jarrold said. “There can be some anxiety around visiting the food bank. We wanted to intentionally change the space so it felt more comfortable for our customers, and we thought adding some color, adding a fun mural would contribute to that.”

NVFB’S FORMER executive director Jessy Lee began researching the choice model concept in 2019 and current executive director, Sophie Albert, along with all the staff at the food bank saw it through. The entire process took about three years.

According to Jarrold, research shows that the choice model pantry provides customers with a more dignified experience while also cutting down on food waste. The choice model operates just as a grocery store does — the customers can choose the items and quantities they need for their specific household rather than getting a box of foods they might not want or need.

The food bank also decided to not put a limit on the number of items customers can select and surprisingly they have had no issues running out of stock of any items.

“Overall it has been very well received by our customers,” Jarrold said. “All of our staff really likes it as well. The grocery store is just so much more fun and it’s more of a community connection, you get to know the customers more.”

The store also provides a space for more food education programming. For example, as people shop, staff hands out samples of a meal that was made with ingredients customers can pick up right in the store. Additionally, NVFB Program Coordinator Kristen Schepker creates creative yet simple meal kits that fly off the shelves.

“The store has given us an avenue to do more food education and this is just the beginning of that for us,” Jarrold said. “We intend to really explore that program and grow it further into what our customers would like it to be.”

AS THE FOOD bank expands its programming, it also is moving more food every month. In July they had the highest number of pantry visits in their 45-year history, serving over 1,500 households, and were on track to break that again in August. That’s the equivalent of serving over 3,500 individuals in the community.

Just in the last three weeks, Jarrold says NVFB had over 22% growth in the number of households coming to the store.

Besides the grocery store, NVFB also has a drive-thru pick-up on Thursdays, a delivery program for homebound individuals and a large mobile pantry in Trego every Friday. The mobile pantry grew from serving 20 households in the beginning to over 160 households today.

“It’s grown incrementally, but really all of our services have,” Jarrold said.

With the new choice model pantry, commercial kitchen, expanded refrigeration and now a beautiful mural to welcome all community members, North Valley Food Bank is hoping to keep expanding as an important resource for Whitefish and the surrounding area while the demand for food services continues to rise.