McDonald passes basket to new leadership
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
RONAN – It’s been almost 30 years since Sherri McDonald first found her passion by helping others through the Ronan Bread Basket, but now, she is retiring.
“It’s time,” she said.
The idea for the food pantry started to form all those years ago when McDonald saw a family living on the street and imagined what it must be like to always feel hungry.
“They didn’t have any food,” she said.
She needed to help, but how? She could give them food, but they would need it again, and what about all of the other hungry people? And then, she saw an opportunity. The Catholic church was encouraging members to find a project to help better the community, and being a religious person, she participated.
“They told us to go out into the community and do God’s work,” she said. She decided that feeding those hungry people was exactly the kind of project she needed to do, and she found the support for such a big task within the church.
Several other people volunteered to help, and the group put out a call to all of the local churches to get them involved.
“We thought that if all the resources were combined with the churches then we could do more,” she said.
With church support, the group decided to form a board. McDonald was appointed chairman, but she wouldn’t take the position if the community didn’t support the project with a combined $3,000 in pledges.
“How could we do it without money?” she said.
The group needed to pay for power, rent on the building, insurance, the groceries and other bills.
“I visited everyone in town,” she said. “Over 30 businesses pledged to help. I was so pleased. This really is a town project.”
McDonald would much rather ensure that other people get mentioned before she takes any credit for her part in starting the food pantry.
“Chris Shrider and Gloria Kramer helped get this started,” she said.
Sandy Centers traveled to Ronan from the Human Resource Center in Kalispell to help the group.
“She was our mentor helping with the paperwork,” McDonald said. “You can’t imagine the amount of paperwork it took, page after page. It took us six years to get our nonprofit status.”
The group found an empty building nestled in a corner away from the main street to provide some privacy for those needing assistance. The site was across from St. Luke Medical Center, and it took a bit of elbow grease to clean it up before the food was brought it.
“It was a filling station before we got it,” McDonald said, adding that the gas pumps were taken out. Volunteers came over from Salish Kootenai College to build shelves and others donated refrigerators and freezers.
Before the doors opened, the food pantry needed a name, but no one really remembers why they chose to call it the Ronan Bread Basket.
“We were going to be giving out a basket of food with a loaf of bread to each person,” McDonald said as she thought about the name. “I don’t really remember why we called it that.”
The shelves were stocked with purchased and donated food items, and in March of 1987, the doors were opened. McDonald was excited to finally be able to help people.
“All the work was worth it,” she said. “The knowledge of helping someone really up against it was wonderful.”
Forty families came in to get food in that first year, and the number eventually grew to 200.
“The town has grown in populations and so has the number of people needing food,” she said.
In almost three decades, she met many people needing help. Many were families, some were men or women out of work, and others were elderly needing assistance. And she noticed something about the people.
“That fallacy that poor people don’t want to work is a bunch of hooey,” she said. “These people were willing to work hard, but the jobs just aren’t there, or they are really low paying jobs. And sometimes it’s about health problems. It can be rough.”
It can take only one additional added expense and people living at the poverty level have to choose between eating and paying the bills.
“It can be something like a flat tire on a car and they just don’t have enough extra for food,” she said.
McDonald knows what it’s like to struggle. She raised several children with her husband, Joe McDonald.
“We didn’t make much when he was a new high school teacher after we were first married,” she said. “We had neighbors give us vegetables from their gardens, and it was a great help, so I’ve been there.”
She helped start the food pantry after her children were raised. She said her 9-year-old great grandson recently made an observation about her volunteer work — he said that she had found her passion.
“I said to him ‘yes I did,’” she said.
But now, it’s time to retire.
“I want to keep going but I can’t,” she said of bouts with arthritis.
Although, she won’t completely retire.
“I still hope to come in and help, just not as much,” she said.
Judy Preston was sworn in as the new chairman of the board to fill McDonald’s spot, and Patty Mocabee is the new executive assistant.
“It will take two people to replace all the work Sherri did,” Preston said.
Preston plans to handle fundraising and board meetings while Mocabee takes care of administrative work like record keeping. It was easy for the two to take over those positions.
“We don’t really need to do anything differently because Sherri and the others did such a good job starting this,” she said, adding that it took many volunteer hours to lay that foundation.
Vice chairman Kramer said the group does plan to make one addition.
“We plan to modernize with computers, but we will keep going with what (McDonald) started,” she said. “She has given a lot to our community.”
McDonald’s work will be celebrated with a retirement party on Saturday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Sacred Heart Parish Hall at 35933 Round Butte Rd. in Ronan. McDonald wants to use the event to honor the work of all the volunteers.
And the Bread Basket can always use more volunteers and donations of food or money. Preston said it might be easier for people to contact her directly for more information at 406-239-4576. Donations can also be mailed to P.O. Box 346, Ronan, MT 59864.
