Arlee food pantry moves
Karen Peterson
The new location for the Food Pantry, a block behind the Hangin Art Gallery, is more easily monitored.
Karen Peterson
The new Food Pantry location has several shelves for canned goods, bread and eggs.
Karen Peterson
Sharon Stevens, a volunteer at the Food Pantry, enjoys visiting with people as she helps them select food items.
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
Karen Peterson
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ARLEE – The food was free but people still broke into the church building to take it.
“It got the point where they’d been broken into several times,” Pastor Jason Jury said of the Jocko Valley Lutheran Church at the north edge of Arlee where the Food Pantry was located. He added that the cost of fixing broken windows was getting to be too expensive for the church.
Pastor Jury suggested that the Food Pantry should be moved into town to the Arlee Alliance Church at 72515 McMurtrie St., a block behind the Hangin Art Gallery, where it could be more easily monitored. Jury is the pastor for the Alliance Church. The pantry was moved in mid-December of 2015.
Every Saturday starting at 10 a.m., excluding the first Saturday of the month, the Food Pantry gives people in need two bags of groceries from food that has been either donated or bought through cash donations. The program doesn’t receive any government funding or grants.
“Community members donate to this financially and food wise,” he said. “It’s done out of the goodness of their hearts, and it’s great to see the community come together to support their own.”
The food is given to those in need based on an honor system.
“We don’t have any forms to fill out,” he said. “They don’t have to prove that they need it. If someone is hungry, we give them food, which is why it made no sense that people would break in and steal it.”
The program is run by volunteers. Sharon Stevens was the volunteer on Saturday, Jan. 23. After retiring from her position at the school as an educator for 36 years, she decided to do some volunteer work.
“I do this for the reason that we all do, to help people,” she said. “It’s rewarding to know that you can help someone in need, and I love to visit with people.”
When she volunteers at the Food Pantry, she usually sees about half a dozen people come in, sometimes more, and many have several people in their households.
“We’ve had a lot of new people come in since it moved here,” she said.
The Food Pantry is literally the size of a medium food pantry you might find in a home, but it’s big enough to have several shelves for canned goods, bread and eggs. The small freezer holds donated meat.
“Sometimes we open the freezer and nothing is in it,” she said. “It depends on the donations.”
The need for help is steady.
“No matter what the economy does, if it tanks or jobs are up, there is always someone that will need help,” Pastor Jury said. “And we can always use more donations.”
One gentleman came in on Saturday needing a bit of help. He said he was running low on food.
“I wouldn’t starve, but I’d be eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches,” he said, explaining that in the winter months it is more difficult to find work.
To make a donation or volunteer, call 406-214-1636.
