COEUR D'ALENE-- The food bank responsible for providing meals to most of Kootenai County is in desperate need of donations.
The shelves are drying up as more people head to the facility in the Coeur d’Alene Industrial Park for help. They usually hold about 20,000 pounds of food at the bank, but now it only has about two to three days worth for emergency meal packs.
“We are really struggling,” Carol Shewfelt, the food bank manager, said.
She is asking the public to donate non-perishable food items like macaroni and cheese and soup for the 6,000 families that currently rely on the food bank.
Renee Chapman’s family is one of them. With her kids out of school for the summer, she has to provide more meals.
“It makes it more difficult. They’re eating more when they’re home. That’s why I’m (at the food bank). They pretty much eat me out of house and home,” she said.
Shewfelt says the bank usually has a surplus, but that isn’t the case now.
The food bank accepts cash and food donations, which can help people like Renee and their families.
“It is a God send. Sometimes you get out on your luck, and you don’t have any place to go. Places like this have the answer.”
