Columbia Falls Food Bank faring well so far

The Columbia Falls Food Bank is feeling flush.

“Individual food donations from the community have been great and cash donations have been awesome,” said longtime manager Jan VonLindern, now co-manager with her daughter Ann Bohmer.

For the past two weeks, the food bank has not been able to order normal bulk purchases from either Smith’s Food and Drug or Super 1 Foods. Despite this, food and cash donations from the community have remained steady and VonLindern was able to purchase goods from local foodservice distributor Glacier Wholesalers, Inc. The food bank is also a member of the Montana Food Bank Network, which buys wholesale from national food manufacturers and distributes to banks across the state. VonLindern has put in a list with the network and is waiting to see how much they have available.

The food bank typically serves between 40 and 50 families each week, and both Bohmer and VonLindern anticipate that number to rise over the coming weeks.

“In the meantime our warehouse is stocked and we’re in good shape for probably the next month,” said VonLindern.

Operations for the food bank have remained mostly the same. Hours of operation are still Mondays 5 to 6:30 p.m. and Tuesdays 9:30 a.m. to noon. Volunteers have been scaled back slightly to maximize those staying at home. The normal application process to receive food has been streamlined, eliminating the interview portion that puts people in an office together.

Donation boxes are still functioning and can be found at the north end of Smith’s Food and Drug or near the loading dock at the food bank. The food bank is gratefully accepting any donations, said VonLindern, but supplies that can always be used are flour, potatoes, sugar, oil and pasta.

“We have plenty of toilet paper!” VonLindern said with a laugh.