Need prompts additional soup kitchen

SANDPOINT — Bonner County’s surging jobless rate has given rise to an increasing number of families seeking food from area soup kitchens and food banks.

According to Bonner Community Food Center director Alice Wallace, the organization saw its 2008 customer base grow a staggering 46 percent from the previous year. Wallace blames general economic woes and an ever-growing number of area under- and unemployed workers for the food bank’s surge in activity.

Wallace’s theory is backed up by numbers from the Idaho Department of Labor, which show Bonner County’s unemployment figures on a years-long upward trajectory, more than doubling in a span of two years. The county reached a historic low of 3.4 percent in March 2007, but has leapt to 9 percent as of February 2009.

The area’s soup kitchens are also busy serving local residents, although none reported larger-than-usual crowds since the recession hit.

Irene Sundquist, who has volunteered at St. Joseph Catholic Church’s weekly soup kitchen since it begin in 1969, said crowds have remained steady during the past several years. Debbie Beeler of Sandpoint’s Assembly of God Church said the church’s soup kitchen serves approximately 100 residents each week, which has fluctuated over the years but has not spiked recently.

While the numbers have remained steady, there has been a noticeable shift in demographics at the soup kitchens, according to Pastor Stan Norman of Sandpoint’s United Methodist Church.

“Interesting enough, we’ve seen more children,” Norman said. “We had a couple of families that typically came, but we see children and young adults more now than we did before.”

Until last week, soup kitchens were available only four days a week.

After hearing from community members that more was needed, the board of directors at the Gardenia Center, a non-denominational spiritual center, decided to reintroduce their own soup kitchen.

The center’s president, Marilyn Chambers, said the organization stopped offering its soup kitchen years ago for a lack of need, but felt the time was right to bring it back.

“We decided that there’s going to be a big need because so many people are out of work,” she said.

While they are meant to help feed the hungry, Sandpoint’s soup kitchen’s are available to everyone, no matter their financial situation.

“It doesn’t matter,” Chambers said. “Whoever wants to come in is welcome. It’s not just for the needy, it’s for anybody.”

The Gardenia Center’s revamped soup kitchen now makes it possible for all residents to get at least one hot meal a day during the work week, but Norman said the real work will not be finished until food is available on the weekends as well.

“We joke about it, but we’ve often made the comment that you can’t be hungry on the weekend,” Norman said. “But I’m working on it. I think there should be at least one meal available every day of the week in Sandpoint for those that need it.”

The Gardenia Center’s soup kitchen takes place Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information or to volunteer, call Chambers at 265-4450.