Food bank open to shoppers in May with restrictions
Kathleen Whitney, of Ferndale, unpacks boxes of mac ‘n’ cheese at the Bigfork Food Bank on Monday morning. (Mackenzie Reiss/Bigfork Eagle)
Arlene Wilson, of Bigfork, helps prepare packaged boxes of food for customers of the Bigfork Food Bank. The food bank transitioned to pre-packaged boxes to help curtail the spread of COVID-19. (Mackenzie Reiss/Bigfork Eagle)
The Bigfork Food Bank is taking a big step towards normalcy by opening their doors for clients to shop, rather than pick up prepackaged boxes of food, two days in May. Food banks are considered essential businesses and have been allowed to continue operations throughout the coronavirus pandemic. However, to reduce the risk of exposure to both clients and volunteers, the Bigfork Food Bank reduced distribution days down from four to a single day in April and have not allowed customers inside — until now.
On May 5 and May 19, the food bank will be open for 1-6 p.m. A maximum of three customers at a time will be permitted to shop, and will be required to wear a mask while doing so. Volunteers, also clad in face masks, will sanitize surfaces, door knobs and shopping carts in between users to further reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure.
“We got thinking — we all go to the grocery store, what is the difference?” said food bank director Ann Tucker. “If we control the number of people in there, we didn’t see any difference between that and the grocery store.”
Shoppers will be contacted in advance and asked to visit the food bank within a certain time frame to avoid large groups arriving at once, and will be encouraged to shop quickly.
Letting customers back into the food bank could also reduce food waste and will significantly cut back on the volunteer hours needed to run the operation. Preparing the boxes of food took a crew of eight up to eight hours.
“If you don’t get the kind of food you want, you might throw it away,” Tucker said, of the prepackaged boxes. “This is just easier— and then people can get what they want.”
She hopes the food bank will be back to their regular opening times of four Tuesdays per month in June. Current needs for the food bank include pancake mix and soup.
On May 1, the food bank will be hosting a soup drive called the May Day Soup-raiser, organized by Debbie Ingram. Donors can remain inside their vehicles and drop off cans or cartons of soup, not individual ingredients, to volunteers in the parking lot from 2-5 p.m. Visitors are also encouraged to decorate their cars in honor of May Day.
“I would just like to thank everybody who has been generous enough to donate money and food to us,” Tucker said. “We really, really appreciate it and it does make a difference.” ■
