Kalispell has long been generous to the Flathead Food Bank.

Oversized donation checks, for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, line the walls of its pantry in the Gateway West Mall. But Applied Materials dwarfed them all with its latest contribution: $136,832.60.

“This is by far the biggest donation that we’ve gotten,” said Jamie Quinn, the food bank’s community engagement and development director, on Tuesday. “We’ve gotten a lot of different grants, but even grants don’t come up to $130,000-plus.”

The semiconductor equipment manufacturer with a facility in Kalispell has supported the food bank for years. This past fall, it found a way to take its fundraisers and food drives to the next level: modeling a fundraiser on the Montana State University Bobcats and University of Montana Grizzlies football rivalry.

“They collect pounds of food and they go against each other,” Quinn explained, adding that the Bobcats fans on staff have won three years in a row.

Their quantitative skills proved useful, leading them to focus on buying the cheapest, heaviest food. “They actually purchased 26,000 pounds of potatoes for us this fall.”

The Applied Materials Foundation matched each pound of food with $1.70 in cash, and also matched each financial contribution dollar-for-dollar.

Together, this made an unprecedented haul for the food bank, which helps about 600 Flathead residents each week, and 60 to 100 rural families through a mobile pantry.

Quinn showed Applied Materials employees Rick Plavidal, Julie Blodgett and Cheryl Behr a large empty space in their storage area.

“This was all filled with potatoes,” she told them.

“We usually give them five to six potatoes” in each food box, explained executive director Lori Botkin, and during the holiday season, “we were able to give them a full bag.”

It sent 2,000 pounds to help needy families in Browning.

And the company’s help goes beyond spuds. Quinn said that their donation “will help us be able to buy about 80,000 pounds of new food, which is awesome.”

Plavidal, Blodgett and Behr all voiced interest in the bank’s work, asking Quinn about its needs and discussing ways they could extend their support throughout the year. Behr, a strategic marketing manager for Applied Materials, chairs the 20-person committee that coordinates these donations.

“We keep trying to find new activities we can do to earn more money” for the food bank, she said, “and make it fun for the employees.”

Reporter Patrick Reilly can be reached at preilly@dailyinterlake.com, or at 758-4407.