Food bank opened

The food bank in Alberton opened last year in June and is meeting a need within the community. The idea for a food bank came up a couple years ago when the Horizons Group came to Alberton and asked what they might need.

“It was not the idea they ended up going with, but a couple of us knew that we needed a food bank and we didn’t see why we needed to wait for Horizons,” said Laura Acker, who is the chair of the food bank’s board and also one of the main people to go forward with the idea. “We thought we can do this on our own.”

In order to open a food bank there was a set process that the organizers needed to go through. First off, they needed a building that met the requirements and the Frenchtown Fire Department, who has a station in Alberton, was happy to provide a space in their building for the food bank. A board of directors was also organized. Acker said that initially they went under the umbrella of the Mineral County Community Foundation’s nonprofit status as it was going to take them some time to acquire their own. Once those three things were in place, Acker said they applied to the Food Network and were accepted.

“This is definitely not a one person job,” Acker said, “and everybody has participated and we’re coming up on two years now.”

The food bank has had its share of obstacles since it opened. The bank opened during the summer and things started out kind of slow, but eventually sped up. Also, when the fire department expanded the building, the bank was given a room that was smaller than what they originally had, but the department knocked out a wall to connect two rooms together.

But without the food bank in Alberton, residents had a choice of driving thirty miles into Missoula or thirty miles into Superior, which just “didn’t make sense” to Acker.

“If they can’t afford to buy food, they can’t afford to drive thirty miles either way,” she said.

Acker said that the food banks serves 104 families in the area, with some people coming over from Frenchtown as well.

“That’s a lot of people in a small area,” Acker said.

Ronnie Johnson, who also helps with the food bank and sits on the board, said that the high school students have been a tremendous help to the food bank.

“We get deliveries once a month and the high school seniors come and unload the deliveries for us,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that she thinks that if the food bank wasn’t open, a lot of people “wouldn’t be eating too much.”

“A lot of people in the area work in summer, but they don’t have work in winter,” Johnson said. “Once the cold weather comes and people don’t have jobs, it really picks up.”

The food bank gives away an average of 1,000 pounds of food twice a month. Both Johnson and Acker said that the volunteers are phenomenal and are very important to the food bank’s ability to provide service to people.

“We have quite a few that show up constantly… volunteers are very important,” Johnson said. “And the school has supported us tremendously. Just last month, they held a food drive and it was just a school idea, but we got about 1,000 pounds of food. They are pretty amazing.”

Acker said that the food bank is also in charge of the back pack program, which provides children with food for the weekend if they need food. She added that they don’t know who the kids are as someone from the school compiles a list and they provide the backpacks.

“They receive three meals worth for three days,” Acker said. “It’s all food that is easily opened by kids.”

This year, the program was funded by the Food Network, but responsibility will fall into the hands of the food bank and so Acker said that any donations are welcome.

“A lot of kids are going to benefit. We’ve had 34 kids this year and next year it will be solely funded by us,” Acker said. “So if anyone wants to help us out it goes to a worthy cause.”

The food bank in Alberton is open from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month.

“I just want to thank the generosity of the Frenchtown Fire Department and the Mineral County Community Foundation who were willing to step up and pretty much made this happen,” Acker said.

The food bank now has its own nonprofit status.