On a chilly Tuesday morning, a black BMW pulls up to the Missoula Food Bank and a well-dressed woman in her mid-30s steps out. She enters the food bank and a few moments later she returns to her car with a box filled with canned soup, boxed pasta, bread and other items. Over the course of the next hour, more cars pull in. Some look like they just came off the showroom floor. Others are dirty and well-traveled, packed to the brim with the owner’s belongings.
The Missoula Food Bank is one of 346 programs across Montana that addresses food insecurity, an issue that reaches a wide range of people across the state. It works with the Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN), an organization established in 1983 that distributes food across the state. According to a report by MFBN, one in 10 Montanans are food insecure, including one in every six children.
But the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to closures and supply shortages, compounds the issue. In rural areas, residents can live between 50 and 100 miles from a supermarket. In these food deserts, gas stations have become the most reliable source of food, and in a pandemic, even these sources have faced threats.
With the pandemic taking its toll on food insecure Montanans, MFBN has increased its output and education across all 56 counties. It has increased distribution by 40% statewide through partnerships with local businesses and major corporations.