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A quarter-century of effort may be eclipsed by a week of lobbying as Missoula Food Bank members rally in support of changes in the federal 2007 Farm Bill.

Although it's just 1 percent of the federal budget, the Farm Bill has many Missoula beneficiaries, Food Bank staff member Bonnie Buckingham told members of City Club Missoula on Friday.

The legislation funds food stamp programs that contributed $90 million to Montana grocery stores and farmers markets last year. It provides the commodities that fill emergency food and assistance warehouses. It delivers the grant funding needed by Garden City Harvest, Farm to School and other local projects that produce locally grown food to Missoula residents and schools. And it supports the Missoula Food Circle, which collects unused food from local restaurants for food bank clients.

The part of the bill that funds those programs goes before the U.S. Senate next week. Buckingham called on City Club members to lobby Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, to provide more ways of getting food to the people who need it, rather than to the ones who grow it.

“One person in eight in Missoula is food-insecure,” Buckingham said. “And this is in the United States, where we grow more food, more efficiently than any other country in the world.”

The effort comes just as the Missoula Food Bank is preparing celebrations for its 25th year of operations. When it started in 1982, the program was first housed in the back of a volunteer's car, and then the basement of the Fort Missoula Mental Health Building. It served about 100 families a month.

Now it serves about 100 families a day, according to food bank board member Fred Simpson. In the last year, roughly 800 volunteers put in more than 15,000 hours of time keeping the program stocked and organized.

“The Food Circle rescues food from places like Pizza Hut, the Missoula County Public Schools kitchens and the University of Montana cafeterias,” Simpson said. “We're able to take that food and repackage it for easy dining by our clients and the other agencies we work with. We're on track to rescue 100,000 pounds of food this year. That's up from 60,000 pounds we took in last year.”

Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com.

 

Open to all

The Missoula Food Bank hosts a community open house Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at its main pantry, 219 S. Third St. W., to thank Missoulians for 25 years of support. Food, drinks, games and tours will be provided.

Audio online

To listen to speakers at Friday's City Club Missoula forum on the Missoula Food Bank, click here.

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