Demand for kids meals is still strong, Food Bank serving about 130 families

Folks who get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s benefits will have less buying power this summer at the Columbia Falls Community Market.

The benefits help people on limited incomes buy food and fresh produce from local farmers year-round. But the federal government recently announced it was trimming a program that had boosted benefits during the pandemic. The net result is a loss of about about $90 a month less in SNAP benefits according to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities.

Land to Hand, a local nonprofit that helps feed hundreds of children and others in the Columbia Falls area, offers folks on SNAP who visit the market an additional $30 per person match when they shop for fresh produce at the market, director Gretchen Boyer said recently.

With inflation still high, Boyer said the cut was “not the best timing.”

The SNAP cuts don’t affect other Land to Hand programs, Boyer noted.

For example, the nonprofit also provides about 350 students at Columbia Falls elementary schools backpacks of food so they have something to eat over the weekends.

That program is financed through private donations, like the Town Pump Foundation and the Whitefish Community Foundation. It costs about $191,000 a year.

“The need is increasing,” Boyer said.

Meanwhile the Columbia Falls Food Bank has been serving about 130 to 140 families a month, said Ann Bohmer, co-manager of the bank.

She said demand peaked around the holidays and has leveled off a bit since. She noted that with rising fuel and rent costs, they’re serving a lot of people.

Some folks lost their homes entirely due to landlords either raising the rents or selling the homes the people were living in.

Some people ended up living in their cars until they could find a place to stay, she said.

Bohmer said a food drive by the Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce was a big help.

Folks can help the Food Bank by dropping off items Monday afternoons and Tuesdays mornings. There’s also contact information on the front door if people have larger donations and can’t make it to the food bank at those hours, Bohmer said.

To learn more about Land to hand and make a donation, visit: https://landtohandmt.org/