Idaho Falls Community Food Bank preparing for holidays, unemployment

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Story Published: Nov 7, 2009 at 10:44 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 7, 2009 at 10:44 PM MST

By Anthony Congi

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IDAHO FALLS - At the Idaho Falls Community Food Bank, Buck Horton and his crew are preparing for their busiest time of the year.

"The end of the year comes around, everybody wants to have a happy Thanksgiving, everybody wants to have a merry Christmas," explains Buck Horton, Director of the Community Food Bank.

But with a lagging economy and the unemployment rate at it's highest since World War II, this holiday season could see an even bigger need for local food banks.

"Starting in July of 2008, it went up about 50, 60 percent. We went form about 400 families a month maybe on the average to 6 to 700 families in a month," says Horton.

Which is a big difference compared to the numbers the Community Food Bank saw from it's early days back in 1980.

"We used to think that if we ever had two hundred families in a month, that would be a phenomenal amount of people. It's the employment figure that has probably been spiking our demand or keeping that demand level at that 6 to 700 families a month," says Horton.

With the help of monetary donations from the community and programs such as Scouting for Food, the Letter Carriers Food Drive, schools and other and organizations, this particular food bank has been able to stay well stocked.

But if the local unemployment rate gets anywhere close to the national average, we'll have to wait and see if there will be enough to go around.

The Idaho Falls Community Food Bank is always looking for food or monetary donations. They're open five days a week from 4 to 5 on North Placer Street.

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