Thrivent program distributes food to community

by Julie GOLDER<br
| October 21, 2010 9:00 PM

BONNERS FERRY— All families in need welcome was the open invitation for families to receive free food Friday.

Trintiy Lutheran Church’s Thrivent Financial and Second Harvest Inland Northwest provided 8,700 pounds of food, to over 500 people in Boundary County during their annual food drive.

Held in the parking lot of Trinity Lutheran Church, about 35 volunteers donated their time to help pack boxes of food and bags of potatoes to keep the lines running smoothly. Trinity Lutheran Church members, people from Boundary County, Boy Scout Troop 114, and students from Spokane Falls turned out to help.

“Isn’t this great, it is always nice to see so many turnout for this event both volunteers and recipients,” said volunteer David Gray.

Community Action Partnership’s, Christine Villanueva said non profit organizations like hers can apply for grants that are based on the population of an area. She said the last census finally proved that Boundary County has been under served for years.

Villanueva expects to have food drives at least once a month soon as a result of the census and funding that comes from grants.

“It has always been a struggle for our county to qualify for enough funding but now it is finally on paper that we have been under serviced,” Villanueva said.

Stan Galloway, vice president of the Thrivent chapter in Boundary County said this is the third event they have held this year.

They already delivered food to Clark Fork and Sandpoint prior to the Boundary County event.

Drew Meuer service coordinator of Second Harvest said he is happy to drive the food up in the truck provided by Second Harvest which holds the equivalent of 74 Volkswagen bugs full of food.

“Second Harvest serves communities in north Idaho and Eastern Washington but Thrivent truly drives this event, we (Second Harvest) drive the food here,” Meuer said.

All food leftover from these events goes to local food banks. In the case of Bonners Ferry, excess food was transported to Community Action Partnership at 7164 4th St.