Facing an increasing number of hungry people at their doors, two independent food banks in the Flathead Valley have outgrown their pantries and are building bigger and better facilities.

The new West Shore Food Bank is under construction on Bills Road, one block off U.S. 93 in Lakeside, and should be operational by midsummer.

In Whitefish, plans are under way to relocate the North Valley Food Bank from a small house on First Street to a 4,748-square-foot facility to be built in Baker Commons. Construction won’t start until the nonprofit is further along with fundraising, but longtime food bank Director June Munski-Feenan hopes to break ground on the project yet this year.

The Lakeside food bank, founded in 1993, has been parceling out food to the needy in a Quonset hut since 1997. It currently serves 230 families a month from an area stretching from south of Kalispell to Elmo.

The rounded roof line of the small, 900-square-foot Quonset always has made it difficult to stack cases of food and maximize space, West Shore Food Bank President Cindy Lanier said.

“We’ve done a lot of Band-Aids through the years,” Lanier said. “It’s just outlived its usefulness.”  

Several of the Lakeside food bank’s nine freezers are located off-site, and some storage is provided in a trailer parked in back of the existing food bank.

“Safety is a major concern,” Lanier said. “We have no parking other than on Highway 93 right of way. We have experienced accidents due to this situation.”

The Lakeside nonprofit’s prayers were answered when an anonymous donor stepped up to give the food bank land for a new facility. The new 3,000-square-foot distribution center will be energy-efficient, Lanier said. A good portion of the building materials and labor are being donated, but the total cost for the facility still will be somewhere just shy of $265,000.

A welcome amenity in the new food bank will be a warm waiting room. Because the existing Quonset is so small, clients have to stand outside even during the winter to wait for food, Lanier said.

The group continues to raise money and will hold a fundraiser from 6 to 8 p.m. May 23 at Tamarack Brewing Co. in Lakeside. Drawings of the new building will be on display. A portion of all beer purchased that evening will be donated to the food bank’s building fund.

“We want to be certain our neighbors on the West Shore don’t have to make a choice between having a roof over their heads or food in their stomachs,” Lanier said. “Our motto is ‘No one goes away hungry.’

Donations to the West Shore Food Bank Building Fund may be sent to P.O. Box 630, Lakeside, MT 59922.

North Valley Food Bank also has outgrown the tiny quarters it’s been using since the doors opened 25 years ago. The group has remodeled and expanded the building through the years but now is out of room for further expansion.

Last fall the food bank paid cash for a lot at Baker Commons near The Wave fitness center, using money it had tucked away. Now an effort is under way to raise $1.5 million, which includes the estimated $650,000 for the new building. The rest would be set up in an endowment fund to help the organization in perpetuity.

“We’ve got some good promises of money,” Munski-Feenan said. The hope is to pay for the construction without a loan.

“This new food bank will allow us to take better care of people,” she added.

North Valley Food Bank serves up to 150 households a week (including home deliveries to the elderly) in the Whitefish area. Roughly 343,000 pounds of food are distributed annually.

“If we have any excess perishables we help out Shepherd’s Hand Clinic, the Salvation Army and the Eureka Senior Center. We don’t want to waste anything,” Munski-Feenan said.

With that frugality in mind, the food bank will strip everything it can from the existing building, such as meat processing equipment used to process wild game, coolers and other kitchen equipment.

The Whitefish City Council recently helped out the food bank by agreeing to use about $10,000 in tax increment revenue to offset the impact fees for the new building.

Donations can be sent to North Valley Food Bank at 311 E. First. St., Whitefish, MT 59937.

Both North Valley Food Bank and West Shore Food Bank operate independently from the Flathead Food Bank and its many branches. And both organizations have an all-volunteer work force.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.