Food bank distributes 84,000 pounds of food in 2019

In 2019, the Bigfork Food Bank distributed more than 84,000 pounds of food— equivalent to the weight of an 18-wheel semi-truck. More than 3,000 individuals benefited from the food bank’s offerings throughout the year — a number that’s stayed relatively steady in recent years according to food bank director Ann Tucker.

The food bank received 61,415 pounds of donated food, 6,258 pounds salvaged of food and purchased 19,605 pounds of food for the year. In addition to serving more than 200 registered families, the food bank made donations to 13 local schools and organizations including Bigfork Schools, the Salvation Army and the Blackfeet Nation, among others. The food bank’s clientele is comprised largely of adults with 281 individuals registered, plus 77 seniors and 135 children.

Tucker said their work is made possible thanks to a group of volunteers and the generosity of the local community.

“I just want to thank everybody,” Tucker said. “We don’t get any federal funding or state funding … we just exist on donations and the goodwill of our community.”

The food bank’s biggest distributions are during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

“For the past three years we have served over 100 families on each of those holidays, and that has pretty much stayed stationary,” Tucker noted.

In 2019, they received two significant grants — one to fund milk purchases and another from an anonymous company that will allow them to buy fresh produce. Tucker said the need is especially great during the winter months, when they don’t have a consistent supply of donations from local growers and have to either buy their own vegetables or rely on canned or frozen options.

The food banks busiest times are when school starts, since parents have additional expenses associated with the school year to contend with, along with summertime when children are home during the day and don’t have the school lunch program to rely on.

Current needs include soup, peanut butter, jelly, pancake mix, syrup, chili, toilet paper and two-pound bags of flour. ¦