SODA SPRINGS — A semi-truck loaded with roughly 40,000 pounds of food rolled into Montpelier on Wednesday morning, and thanks to the efforts of area churches, volunteers, businesses and organizations, families across five Southeast Idaho communities will have a little more on their shelves heading into the fall and winter.
The delivery is part of a nationwide effort by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to donate 250 semi-truckloads of food and household goods to food banks in all 50 states, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the United States' founding.
The initiative, tied to the America250 "America Gives" campaign, is being carried out in partnership with JustServe.org, a volunteer-matching organization the church helps sponsor.
"The church as a whole has embraced the 250-year celebration of America's founding," said Mitchell Hart, a member of the communications team for the Soda Springs Coordinating Council, which oversees church humanitarian efforts across nine states in southeast Idaho and southwestern Wyoming. "As part of the giving or serving, JustServe sent various semi trucks full of food, which is a normal part of their donations and humanitarian work. They have production facilities all over the country that put food together and help nationally and internationally."
During the Wednesday morning delivery, about 75 volunteers gathered at the Walton Feed and Seed and Rainy Day Foods warehouse in Montpelier, which opened its facility as a staging area.
Volunteers sorted the shipment into five pallets of about 8,000 pounds, or 4 tons each, before community teams hauled their portion to local food banks in Garden City, McCammon, Montpelier, Paris and Soda Springs.
Thanks to the volunteer efforts of everyone involved, the entire process of unloading and distribution went by quickly.
"Volunteers were ecstatic about replenishing their shelves. It was a great event," Hart said. "The amazing thing is they started to assemble folks over in Montpelier about 9:30 a.m., and we were done before 1 p.m. in Soda Springs. The food arrived, was offloaded, sorted, reloaded onto other trucks, taken to our community, offloaded, and then put on their shelves in the food bank in less than four hours. It was amazing."
In Soda Springs, equipment and crew from Brown's Bees and Honey drove to Montpelier to help sort the shipment before loading it onto their own truck for delivery back to Caribou County.
The donation included pasta, spaghetti sauce, salsa, peanut butter, flour, beef stew, chili, hot chocolate mix, vegetables and laundry detergent, with much of it grown or produced through the church's agricultural welfare system and funded through member donations.
Hart said the food bank does some basic intake screening, but is generally open to anyone in need.
Families can now obtain the food items by visiting the food banks during their regularly scheduled hours, for emergency situations or simply to help get through difficult times, Hart said.
The Caribou County Food Bank operates out of a small building at 259 East Second South in Soda Springs, in the back parking lot near Sims Funeral Home and the Soda Springs Police Department.
Area residents also have access to a separate monthly resource. The Idaho Foodbank brings a semi-truck to the Caribou County fire station on the third Thursday of each month, distributing boxes of surplus or near-expiration food donated by retailers such as Walmart, Costco and Sam's Club. Hart said no questions are asked, and the program helps supplement what the local food bank can offer the rest of the month.
Hart said he hopes the effort's connection to JustServe.org helps sustain the momentum long after the America250 celebration ends. The website allows volunteers to search for local service projects, from food distribution to home repairs for elderly residents to park cleanups, or to submit a project themselves.
"Once the 250-year celebration moves on and we're on to the next year, the JustServe.org organization will still exist," Hart said. "This effort can continue into the future."
Hart credited a wide range of local partners with making Wednesday's distribution run smoothly, including Walton Feed and Seed, Rainy Day Foods, and Brown's Bees and Honey, along with the dozens of volunteers who turned out to make a difference in their communities.