STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

When The Hunger Coalition held its last fundraiser at The Argyros in December 2019, staff members and board members were giddy about the prospects of a new Bloom Community Food Center.

They got it done, opening a 13,000-square-foot food and resource center and greenhouse in spite of the pandemic. And this past week, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, they were back at The Argyros looking to do more.

“The Hunger Coalition is all about food, and we will provide it for as long as it’s needed. But we’re wanting to do something more, something new for Blaine County,” said Krista Felton, director of philanthropy. “We’ll continue what we’ve been doing but we want to broaden our efforts to find out what the root causes of hunger are in the valley. It’s not just the price of food. It’s transportation, the cost of childcare, education…”

The “transformative gifts,” as Hunger Coalition staff called them, began rolling in from the 200 some supporters in the room. Two donors gave $50,000 each and two more $25,000 each. A few others made matching donations until the dollars added up to $683,000.

The news that they had exceeded the $450,000 raised during the last fundraiser prompted staff to hug one another in excited joy.

“I came with an amount I was prepared to give, and I raised my paddle three more times because of R.L.,” said Leslie Silva, referring to R.L. Rowsey’s gentle way of coaxing people to give.

“They’re one of the organizations that take care of the valley, and I love giving money to them,” said Jeanne Meyers.

Co-Director Brooke McKenna noted that a family needs to make $50 an hour to make a living wage in the Wood River Valley, given the cost of housing and groceries. With the average wage rounding out to $14 an hour, a person needs two fulltime jobs just to make ends meet, she added.

“We are feeding people who are living on the edge of crisis. We are feeding people who are the hardest working people in Blaine County,” she said.

One of those who has received help from The Hunger Coalition is Jeff Emerick. He grew up in the Wood River Valley and felt like he was on top of the world when he got the opportunity to move back to work as a firefighter. But debt mounted after he broke his back, and he found himself camping out with his dog.

“I was homeless for three years and was just getting back to feeling good when I got sick. I lost a hundred pounds in a month—I almost starved to death because I couldn’t digest my food. But The Hunger Coalition got me help from other organizations, and I got my self-respect back,” he recounted.

“I went from needing help to now serving on the board,” he added. “I was helped and I want to help others get back on their feet.”

DID YOU KNOW?

The Hunger Coalition continues to serve record numbers of people. In fact, it’s had so many people showing up for its weekly food distributions that the staff restructured the distribution program to have families pick up the same amount of food every two weeks instead of every week.

“We had people picking up food nonstop for six hours, which was pretty intense,” said Krista Felton. “We weren’t able to talk to our clients and see what resources they needed. Cutting back lets us do what we do best.”