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Spotlight Agencies

Walsh County Food Pantry
Agency Name: Walsh County Food Pantry
Address: 1515 Western Avenue Grafton, ND 58237
Contact Person: Beverly Dolan
Phone: 701-352-1648
Email: dani353@qwest.com

What hours is your pantry open? 1 - 4pm Monday-Thursday

How much food do you give out? one-two week's worth of meals 

Do clients need referrals? What is required of them to get food? No referrals needed. The only thing asked is proof of residence

Do you do any outreach or advertising? Very involved in community

Do you pre-pack the food boxes, or give the clients a choice? Prepack the dry foods and the frozen is given out when the food is picked up

Tell us about how your program operates. Walk us through what volunteers do, how the clients get their food, etc.  We have two volunteers at each distribution to hand out food to those in need.

Is there anything that you would like suggestions, ideas or advice on? Any ideas are always welcome.

Anything else you’d like to share with the network? (ideas, stories, etc) I feel one of the reasons we have been able to continue our mission of doing our part on feeding the poor is because we are a community Christian based Pantry. With God's help we will continue!

Belfield-Medora Pantry
Agency Name: Belfield-Medora Food Pantry
Address: PO Box 721   Belfield, ND 58622
Contact Person: Doris Urban
Phone: 701-575-4405
Email: durban@q.com

What hours is your pantry open? Third Thursday of each month from 11-12 or for an emergency box anytime. 

How much food do you give out? 7 days worth of meals 

Do clients need referrals? What is required of them to get food? To have any emergency that puts them in danger of not having food.

Do you do any outreach or advertising? Outreach to all the clergy in the community and the city and police employees. 

Do you pre-pack the food boxes, or give the clients a choice? Prepack after the 1st emergency box

Tell us about how your program operates. Walk us through what volunteers do, how the clients get their food, etc.  Clients fill out an application for each month that they need assistance. They meet with a board member for the 1st emergency box provided for them. If further assistance is needed, an income verification form is filled out for our files.

Is there anything that you would like suggestions, ideas or advice on? Any ideas are always welcome and if we can improve in any areas, we would cherish any and all suggestions and advice. 

Anything else you’d like to share with the network? (ideas, stories, etc) I feel one of the reasons we have been able to continue our mission of doing our part on feeding the poor is because we are a community Christian based Pantry. With God's help we will continue! Thank you.

Mohall Food Pantry
Agency Name: Mohall Food Pantry
Address: 203 1st Ave. NE, Mohall, ND 58761
Contact Person: Verna Schoenberg
Phone: 701-756-6163
Email: schoenbergv@srt.com

What hours is your pantry open? We are open to the public 1 hour or so during the 2nd Tuesday of the month, in the late afternoon, early evening.

How much food do you give out? We give out approximately 20 lbs. per person

Do clients need referrals? What is required of them to get food? No. They fill out an “order sheet” when they arrive, showing their food needs, name, address and number of children/adults in household.

Do you do any outreach or advertising? Our local newspaper prints the day and time we’re open. We also have a metal sign, made by a sign co., on Main Street, that has the information as well.

Do you pre-pack the food boxes, or give the clients a choice? In order to give the clientele a sense of doing their own shopping, we have what we call “order sheets”. These sheets list our complete inventory, are given to the people when they come, along with a number, which goes with their name. Clients then “check” the items they like and need for their family. Quantities vary, depending on how much we have is stock. Bags are then filled by volunteers and brought out to the people. Help is available - if needed in carrying the bags out. Sometimes we also deliver to shut-ins. We rely on our “youth” for help as well. The sheets provide the information I need to keep records for the pantry.

Tell us about how your program operates. Walk us through what volunteers do, how the clients get their food, etc.  The Mohall Food Pantry is run by the four churches in Mohall. We are located in the basement of Zion Lutheran Church. When we started, some 18 years ago, we utilized 2 small Sunday school rooms. It wasn’t long before we had to expand to a larger room, needing space for the supplies. We have 3 freezers and 1 refrigerator to use. Another part of the basement is used for the clientele waiting area. Each of the four churches take 3 months at a time, during which the volunteers order food, pick it up, stock the shelves and distribute it to the people. We don’t have any specific guidelines or policies that we follow as to the needs of the clients. All we ask is that they try to take only the things that they can use. We do not feel that we can provide all the daily needs, only help supplement them.  We serve monthly an average of 24 families, averaging 45-50 individuals, giving out approximately 20 lbs. per person. Through out the year approximately 55-65 families use the pantry, depending on their needs at the time.

Anything else you’d like to share with the network? (ideas, stories, etc) We are fortunate to be able to get food from the Great Plains Food Bank. About 95% comes from there. We rely on monetary donations from organizations, the churches, and individuals to keep going. There are also food drives through the School and community that help keep the pantry operating.
Absolute privacy, as to who the clients are, is one of the things we find important in serving their needs. All of us at sometime or another can use a helping hand, and that is our calling.

What hours is your pantry open? 6:30-8:00 pm Mondays through Thursdays. We take the last order at 7:45pm to give clients adequate time to finish their shopping.

How much food do you give out? Each client is able to choose from a variety of categories: soups, beans, dry pasta, bread, etc. In each of those categories a client is able to take a designated amount based on house hold size. (ex: a family of 2 gets 1 can of tuna, a family of 7 would get three). There is no minimum or maximum food weight a client can receive. We distribute approximately 3,000 pounds of food each night we are open.

Do clients need referrals? What is required of them to get food? Anyone can use our services if they fall within our income guidelines (which is honor based) and every member of the family must have ID when they sign up.

Do you pre-pack the food boxes, or give the clients a choice? We have successfully transitioned to a "Choice Model" Food Pantry. Clients are able to choose from different categories or they have the option of skipping a category. It allows clients to take only what they need and want instead of getting food that they wouldn't use. It has also been helpful with clients that have dietary restrictions or cultural food preferences.

Tell us about how your program operates. Walk us through what volunteers do, how the clients get their food, etc.  Clients are able to use the food pantry once every calendar month. They must bring a form of identification with them. Once the client checks in, they must wait their turn to go into the pantry. Once it is their turn they will receive a clipboard with their "intake sheet" which has all the household information and they will also receive a color-coded grocery list depending on their household size. We usually have about 8 shoppers at one time. A client can choose to either do their shopping with a volunteer, or go through the "check out" with a volunteer when they are finished to ensure they followed our guidelines. We need 8 volunteers every night we are open to help clients learn our new Choice Model system, help bag groceries, answer questions, stock shelves, clean etc. It has been going very smoothly and we are usually done at 8:15.

Anything else you’d like to share with the network? (ideas, stories, etc) The power of choice has given new life to our facility. The changes were positive from the very beginning. I will conclude by giving some small, but very powerful examples of how something as simple as giving clients choices can make a big impact.

· Clients commenting how much like a grocery store the pantry looks and feels
· A father able to choose a cake and frosting from the desserts shelf to make a cake for his son’s birthday
· A Muslim family able to choose products that don’t contain pork
· A single woman only taking 16 pounds of food because that’s all she needed or wanted
· A grandmother choosing chocolate chips to make cookies with her granddaughter