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More Idahoans seek food aid, even in middle-class Meridian: Churches, government agencies, businesses and volunteers come together at a food bank.
Jul 04, 2009 (The Idaho Statesman - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Tere Liberty, Meridian Food Bank volunteer, has empathy for people in hard times.
She moved west after Hurricane Katrina wrecked her house in New Orleans.
"What people are in now is an economic hurricane," Liberty said, as she separated canned goods in the back room at the food bank.
"In some ways, a storm is easier, because it happens, and it's over," she said. "Now, people are getting kicked in sections. They lose their job one month, lose their house the next."
Demand for food has jumped this year in Meridian and across Idaho as the economy has worsened.
The Meridian Food Bankserved 538 new patrons in 2007 and 810 in 2008. Only six months into 2009, the food bank already has served 511 first-time visitors.
Other Treasure Valley agencies are seeing similar increases. The Boise Rescue Mission recently announced it's seeing a record number of people asking for food aid.
The picture is the same on the state level. More than 151,000 people qualified for food assistance in May, compared to nearly 100,000 at the same time last year, said Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials.
A NEW HOME
The Meridian Food Bank is only blocks from Meridian City Hall.
Patrons line up early on the days it's open. Some drive, parking pickup trucks with a dog riding shotgun. Some come on foot, pulling children's wagons across Meridian Road.
The food bank occupies a compound of small buildings, including a former dairy equipment workshop, owned by the Ada County Highway District.
Dan Clark, food bank chairman and administrator of the Valley Shepherd Church of the Nazarene, said the group began serving patrons at the new building in mid-February and hosted an open house in June to show off a volunteer-powered remodel.
The food bank pays rent of $1 a year to ACHD and will have a home there until at least 2013, ACHD spokeswoman Robbie Johnson said.
Eventually, ACHD plans to build a crossover between Main Street and Meridian Road where the food bank stands.
For now, renting to the food bank benefits the community and is a good use of property that would otherwise be hard to rent because of the finite time frame, Johnson said.
INVISIBLE PEOPLE
Clark saw the need for a food bank a decade ago after a homeless acquaintance took him on an eye-opening tour of Meridian.
"There were 85 homeless people, and that was 10 years ago," Clark said. "I had had no idea. These people had been invisible."
Clark believes that blindness continues.
"People look at Meridian and don't see homeless people. They see this nice bedroom community. With the food bank, we're trying to bring that other story out. We fed 2,200 people last month. That's a lot of people."
The food bank isn't just for Meridian residents. Lately it has been serving more people from Kuna, Star, Emmett and other nearby towns, said volunteer Brandi Walker, food bank operations director.
COLLABORATION FOR COMMUNITY
The food bank began in 1999 in an unused building owned by Valley Shepherd.
A few years later, the church combined forces with the Optimist Club and Church of the Holy Nativity, which also had started a food bank.
The group got its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2006 and continued to involve more community organizations.
"This isn't a church thing," Clark said. "Some of us are doing this work because that's what Jesus told us to do. For other volunteers, it's what their heart tells them to do. Either way, it's fine with us."
The Meridian Food Bank is part of the Idaho Foodbank network and receives donations from that agency.
The food bank also got a HUD grant through the City of Meridian and is applying for a second grant.
Clark and Walker, who calls her work "a labor of love," can rattle off the names of businesses that have helped the food bank.
"No one organization could pull this off," Clark said.
Just recently, the food bank got an unexpected call from Computrol, a local electronics company. Workers there had organized an office challenge. In two weeks, they collected 3,000 pounds of food, and wanted the Meridian Food Bank to have it.
The food bank is always in need of volunteers like Liberty, who as a kid dreamed of joining the Peace Corps.
"The Meridian Food Bank isn't outer Mongolia," she said, "but it's still helping."
Anna Webb: 377-6431
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