New Utah Food Bank Pantry will boost services to southern Utahns dealing with food insecurity and related issues

Last year, the Utah Food Bank distributed 2.9 million meals, or nearly 3.5 million pounds of food, to Washington County residents.

tornado • Once the new food pantry opens in June, Utah Food Bank officials expect the number of families receiving food and other assistance in the eastern Washington County region to double.

Currently, about 500 families are cramped Hurricane Valley Food Pantry Every month to get food and other basic necessities. but Food Bank of Utah Officials expect those numbers to reach 1,000 or more with the opening of its new $2 million-plus facility at 600 North 500 West in Hurricane.

Hurricane Valley Food Pantry is located in a dilapidated business park at 450 E. 800 North in Hurricane. While the new warehouse it will replace is located just a few miles away, it is light years away from the old facility, which is obscured by abandoned cars, is about the size of two adjacent warehouse units and is only open for business for about 10 hours. week.

“There’s no parking, the building is in disrepair, and it’s a little scary that people are having to make their way through cars to get to the pantry,” Jeanette Bott, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Utah, told the Salt Lake Tribune. . “The new building will be safe and clean and this element of dignity will be returned to beneficiaries in need.”

The Utah Food Bank facility will also be open seven days a week and one Saturday each month.

Bott and state Sen. Don Ibson, who serves on the board of the Utah Food Bank, say food insecurity in Washington County is a bigger problem than many people think. They noted that in the past fiscal year, the Utah Food Bank distributed 2.9 million meals, or nearly 3.5 million pounds of food, to Washington County residents. They add that nearly 18,000 residents of the province face hunger every day.

“A large number of these people who have never asked for help… will now be able to get help very easily,” Bott said.

Epson, R. St. George played a key role in helping the Food Bank of Utah secure $42 million in state funding — much of which was provided through the federal American Rescue Plan Act to provide relief during the coronavirus — to expand its operations statewide.

In addition to purchasing the new building for the Hurricane Pantry, the Utah Food Bank used the funds to open two 4,000-square-foot food pantries on the Navajo Nation, one on Montezuma Creek and the other in Monument Valley. It also funded the opening of the nonprofit’s 18,000-square-foot Southeast Distribution Center in Blanding, which includes an 1,800-square-foot warehouse and will support others on the reservation.

The Utah Food Bank’s Hurricane Facility will total 9,200 square feet — about 5,600 square feet for storage and warehouse space and another 3,600 square feet of office space. Food bank employees will occupy offices on the second floor. the Five County Association of Governments — an association comprised of Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane and Washington counties — will lease ground-floor offices to provide additional services closely related to the challenge of food insecurity.

These services include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs; Domestic violence counseling; Multiple housing assistance programs; and the Home Energy Assistance Target (HEAT) program, among others.

These additional services and the partnership between the Utah Food Bank and the Five-County Association are what will set the Hurricane Facility apart, Bott said.

“This is the first warehouse where we have the physical space to offer additional services,” she said. “We want to make sure that residents in this part of Washington County can access these programs without having to travel to St. George.”

For his part, Ipson is largely critical of all the federal dollars that have flowed into state economies during the pandemic, saying they have fueled inflation and contributed to problems like food insecurity. However, he views the state dollars he helped secure for the Utah Food Bank expansion project as money well spent.

“It’s probably as good run as any organization I’ve been in,” Ipson said, noting that 97% of every dollar the nonprofit receives goes directly to helping people who need it most. “This is unreasonable.”

Founded in 1904, the Utah Food Bank has emerged as the state’s largest non-profit organization combating issues of hunger and food insecurity. In addition to its own facilities, the organization provides food and other necessities to 275 pantries or partner agencies located in all 29 Utah counties, Bott said. In the past fiscal year, the Food Bank of Utah distributed more than 60 million pounds of food — the equivalent of About 50 million meals – to families and individuals across the state.

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