The Bigfork Food Bank was founded in 1983 on the principle of neighbors helping neighbors, and now that sense of neighborliness has expanded to include Creston.  

Since last spring, the food bank has driven its van to Creston School once a month to distribute food boxes to families in need. The pilot program is starting small as it rolls out, Executive Director Jamie Quinn said, but the three to four families that utilize the service are grateful for the mobile pantry. 

"We're happy to support,” Quinn added. “We want to make sure we're not missing that community since they are our neighbors, and we want to be able to support them, and we have the capacity to do so. We also find that getting our van out there is a positive." 

Halfway between Bigfork and Kalispell and without a food bank or grocery store of its own, Creston residents are forced to drive a minimum of 15 minutes either direction for groceries and necessities. Without reliable public transportation in the Flathead Valley, Quinn said Creston residents are more likely to head into Kalispell so they can maximize their gas money and utilize other services at the same time. At the same time, though, she feels Bigfork is in a position to lend a hand to these neighbors in need.  

The idea for the mobile food pantry was born out of a partnership with Creston School. The Bigfork Food Bank provides snacks for students at the school, which does not have a kitchen or provide meals for its students. Through those donations, Quinn learned that there were families in need of food boxes during the holidays and stepped in to provide turkeys along with the rest of the holiday fixings.  

From there, the Bigfork Food Bank decided to make it a once-a-month affair, not just during the holiday season. Through the mobile program, families request which shelf-stable items they need. In addition, Quinn goes through the bank's surplus produce, meat and miscellaneous items like cleaning supplies. At the mobile food pantry, families take what they need.  

Box drop-off happens on the second Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m. at Creston School, after school is over and the buses have left. Quinn drives the van to Creston and distributes the food to the families who need it.  

Quinn said three to four families utilize the mobile pantry service each month, and she's excited to see the pilot program grow as more people learn about it.  

It carries on the legacy that founded the Bigfork Food Bank in 1983, when a group of Bigfork residents rallied an effort to help their neighbors in need. The food bank started out as an ad hoc affair operating out of a Quonset hut, but over the years, support started flooding in.  

In 2015, thanks to a generous donation, the Bigfork Food Bank moved into its current building on Montana 35, which was built specifically to serve the community with a walk-in freezer, coolers, ample storage space, a reception area and the grocery store.  

Through community support, the food bank was also able to hire its first full-time employee in Quinn. Previously, the food bank was entirely run by volunteers who contributed their time and resources to keep the operation running smoothly. Quinn is still dependent on those volunteers, with a roster of around 95 regulars committed to the nonprofit's mission. They also happen to have a lot of fun together, Quinn added.  

In Bigfork, the food bank’s clientele mostly consists of the elderly and widowed, disabled individuals and the working poor. In the summertime, migrant farm workers also use the pantry.  

The food bank accepts any family whose average income falls below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, which in 2026 is $15,960 annually for an individual person or $33,000 per year for a family of four, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  

Each year, the Bigfork Food Bank distributes food to more than 550 people per year in the Bigfork area. This year alone, the food bank has already distributed more than 10,000 pounds of food and served more than 100 households each month, per statistics provided by Quinn.  

Now, thanks to the mobile food pantry, those numbers include Creston families as well.  

For more information about the Bigfork Food Bank and its services, visit bigforkfoodbank.org. 

Reporter Elsa Ericksen can be reached at 406-758-4459 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.