Food pantries offer help to needy, seek donations
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From Polson to Arlee, local food pantries are gearing up for their busiest time of year: the holiday season. And they all depend on community support — volunteers, food and financial donations — to help lessen the burden on needy families.
“Our job is to help people the best we can,” said Brian River, director of the Loaves and Fish Food Pantry in Polson.
Loaves and Fish does that by providing an emergency three-to-five-day supply of food once a month for people who meet federal poverty guidelines. Clients are also allowed extra milk and bread as often as it’s available, River explained.
The pantry stocks a variety of canned goods, fruits, vegetables, several kinds of meat, cereal, dried beans and more.
“It’s a nice selection of food,” River said. “People can actually shop for their food and pick out what they want.”
Donations of food are always welcome, and River said sugar, canned tomato products, rice, oatmeal and canned fruit are especially needed now. And through Nov. 30, Town Pump will match all monetary donations to the food pantry, he added.
Loaves and Fish is located at 904 1st St. E. across from Western Building Center in Polson, and is open Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
In Ronan, the Bread Basket is always looking for volunteers and donations, vice president Gloria Kramer said. The Bread Basket serves low-income families from “halfway to Polson to halfway to St. Ignatius,” she said, and each family is allowed one visit per month to the food pantry.
Donations of all fruits, vegetables, peanut butter, crackers and anything for holiday meals are especially appreciated this time of year, Kramer said.
Open Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Bread Basket can be found at 10 6th Ave. SW across from St. Luke Community Hospital and behind the Mission Valley Senior Center in Ronan.
Covering St. Ignatius, Ravalli, Dixon and Arlee, the Mission Valley Food Pantry provides an emergency three-day supply of food once a month to the needy, director Heidi Riddle said.
“We always need food (and) we can always use volunteers,” she said. “Any kind of non-perishable food would be good.”
Mission Valley Food Pantry is located at 308 Crystal St. in St. Ignatius.
Arlee’s Jocko Valley Food Pantry receives no government funding and is supported entirely by private donations, volunteer Kelley Brown said.
“It’s just something the community does,” she explained.
The pantry is housed in the Jocko Valley Lutheran Church at 17926 U.S. Highway 93. Tuna fish, peanut butter, canned pasta and meat dishes, Ramen noodles, soups, canned spaghetti sauce, canned fruit and vegetables, sugar in small packages, instant mashed potatoes, gravy mixes, instant oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, tomato sauce and canned tomatoes are all needed. Donations of frozen meat, including wild game, are also accepted.
The pantry is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon — except the first Saturday of the month — and allows two bags of food per household to anyone in need.
