Food bank gets new location
Dennis Kimzey carries a box of food from the truck load last Thursday. He was one of the many volunteers that helped the food bank relocate to its new location.
Linda Christofferson was one of the volunteers to donate her time in helping the food bank relocate last week to its new location.
Doug Sharkey directs Ken Christofferson as to where he should set down his box of food.
Last Thursday was moving day for the Mineral County Food Bank located in Superior. Volunteers were on hand to help load food into trucks to be transported over to the new building, which is located off Fourth Street, just across the way from S & S Foods.
The inside of the new building was freshly painted and shelving was in place to store the food that was coming in. Lorna Sharkey said that the old space was about 250 sq. feet and the new space is about 650 sq. feet.
The new move fell into place pretty quickly, Sharkey said. She said that at the end of November they had found a building and decided what they needed to do. All the inspections and everything else came through and the date to move was set.
“It’s all gone without much of a glitch,” Sharkey said.
On Thursday, Ron Watson was busy helping with the cupboards to make them functional. All of the work inside the new building has been done by volunteers. Stortz Electrical handled all of the electrical aspects, a grant from Northwestern Energy allowed the bank to purchase a freezer and it was a group of volunteers that helped paint, build shelves and get the building ready for Thursday’s move. Energy Partners in Superior provided the new building with a source for heat installing a new standing stove.
“One of the best things is that we now have a commercial sized door,” Sharkey said, “which will allow trucks to pull right up here so we can unload.”
The counter top and some more shelves still needed to be put in place on Thursday, but during the morning, Ken and Linda Christofferson along with Dennis Kimzey drove up with a load of food to be dropped off.
“It’s everybody’s duty to help out,” Kimzey said.
Ken agreed.
“It’s just a nice thing to do.”
“Plus, twenty-five dollars an hour isn’t bad either,” Kimzey added, joking of course.
Doug Sharkey was in the pantry sorting out the food as the others brought it to him from the back of the truck. Beforehand, they had discussed where everything should go, from vegetables to grains.
“There are peaches,” Doug exclaimed as he was handed a box of peaches, “we didn’t say anything about fruit.”
As someone got in the truck to back it in closer, Doug also joked that “someone’s stealing our food.”
“We’ve had a huge crew to help,” Sharkey said.
Sharkey expects that the new location will be much better than the former. She said that once the counter is in place up in the front of the food bank, they will have bags prepared and stored underneath and residents needing food can walk in, fill out the paperwork and then receive their bag. The food bank is paying rent for the building, but for a year, the Human Resource council is going to pay part of the rent to help them get established.
Since 1976, the food bank has shared space with various organizations and has been searching for its own space for quite some time. The bank had outgrown its previous location that it shared with the senior center. The 11’ x 27’ space housed three freezers, case goods, a desk, a weighing area and surround shelves three feet deep, floor to ceiling.
The new building has a good open space out front, with an office off the side, which will allow Manager Mary McClammy to do work for the food bank outside of her home. There is also ample parking space for clients.
The food bank will continue to operate with the same hours 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. each Friday. The bank serves 175 to 220 people each month. With the economic decline, numbers have increased.
Without the work of the volunteers, the food bank would never have been able to make the transition happen. The food bank wants to thank everyone who lent a hand. The food bank will be open out of its new location.