The Flathead Valley’s food banks are grappling with how to fill funding gaps left by cuts to federal food assistance programs amid rising demand for services.   

The county is home to several food banks that provide both fresh and non-perishable goods to thousands of families, seniors and working people. While food banks stock their shelves in various ways, including private donations, grocery surpluses and buying food, they also lean on the federal government for assistance in buying fresh, home-grown items.

But the Trump administration axed two U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that gave schools and food banks the opportunity to buy locally, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending. Five hundred million in funding was also cancelled from a 40-year-old federal program providing emergency food assistance to low-income individuals, which also helps stock food pantries in the Flathead Valley.   

When the Flathead Food Bank and North Valley Food Bank needed to stock up on milk, eggs or fresh produce, they looked to the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program to reimburse those purchases.  

But the program is set to sunset this year and will not be renewed, and Chris Sidmore, executive director of the Flathead Food Bank in Kalispell, doesn’t see any new funding opportunities popping up.  

“There was hope that it would be renewed, but that got stopped,” Sidmore said. “Both us as an organization, and then talking with other food banks, it doesn’t seem that there’s that much government funding on the horizon.” 

Established in 2021, the program was meant “not only as a tool to ensure that more Montana food is ending up on the plates of Montanans, but also to initiate long-term buyer-seller relationships that will grow our local food economy,” according to the federal agency’s website. 

The Flathead Food Bank received $112,000 disbursed over 18 months through the program that will end in May. When funding runs out, Sidmore expects a reduction in the number of eggs and fresh produce on the pantry shelves because the food bank won’t be able to match the grant money lost.  

At one point, Sidmore was not sure whether the federal government would reimburse the food banks on goods already purchased. 

North Valley Food Bank Executive Director Sophie Albert previously expected to see the program come back again after spending $155,000 awarded through the program over two years. 

“It was really great, because really what people want when they come to the food bank is locally grown fresh produce,” she said. “Produce is expensive. We want people to eat healthy. They want nutritious food. And this grant was huge for us.”  

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the pandemic-era program “will now be sunsetted at the end of the performance period, marking a return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives.” 

ALBERT EXPECTS rural pantries to be hit hardest by the $500 million cancelled from the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which was sourced from the Commodity Credit Corporation and amounts to 40% of the program. 

While North Valley, based in Whitefish, serves around 1,200 people a week, it also acts as a food hub for Northwest Montana, supplying groceries to FAST Blackfeet in Browning and rural pantries in Yaak, Eureka, Libby and Troy.  

The goods, which consist of produce, dairy, meat and shelf-stable items, are delivered from the Montana Food Bank Network based in Missoula, which receives federal dollars from the Emergency Food Assistance Program to dole out goods to food banks across Montana.  

The statewide food bank supplied five food banks in the Flathead Valley with almost 450,000 pounds of Emergency Assistance food last year. Around 181,000 pounds of which were funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation.  

“This is a significant amount of TEFAP food that will not be going to our partners and in turn will not be available to our hungry neighbors in Flathead County and across the state,” said Jesse Schraufnagel, programs manager for the Montana Food Bank Network.  

About 20% of the food moving through the North Valley Food Bank comes from the federal program, which amounts to about 230,000 pounds a year. The Flathead Food Bank received around 58,000 pounds of food sourced through the Commodity Credit Corporation.  

Sidmore said losing that supply would be a huge hit.   

Albert expects to see a $120,000 gap from the funding loss with no option other than to fill it because of demand. But she says the rural pantries North Valley supplies will be the most impacted.  

“For those pantries, it’s going to be much more devastating because with them, it’s honestly probably the majority of the food they hand out to their community,” she said.  

THE WHITEFISH and Kalispell food banks stock shelves partly through grocery rescue, which involves gathering edible food that would otherwise go to waste from grocery stores. 

But the Bigfork Food Bank doesn’t have access to many grocery stores like the more populated neighboring towns do. That’s why Executive Director Jamie Quinn said the loss in goods will need to be made up either through more private donations or by buying the food. 

Because 90% of the Flathead Food Bank’s revenue comes from private donations, Sidmore doesn’t see a substantial loss in service in the near future but expects more effort to go to finding non-governmental grants and organizing fundraisers to fill the gap in supply.  

But looking further down the road, Sidmore sees money getting tighter as operational costs rise with demand. 

“It’s a heavy lift because food prices go up, everything else goes up,” he said. “And then year over year we are just seeing more people as the valley grows.” 

Last year, the food bank distributed 1.8 million pounds of food, half of which was donated from grocery stores, farmers or the community. The other half is purchased, which amounts to a bill of about $26,000 per month. 

The Flathead Food Bank saw a record number of visits in January at around 2,200, up 15% from the previous January. Demand across all services, which includes senior and student food assistance and mobile pantries, rose 12% between 2023 and 2024, and Sidmore expects that rate to hold steady. 

Over 76% of pantry visitors last year reported either an active income or are elderly trying to live off retirement. 

“We see a big percentage of working people here,” Sidmore said.  

At Bigfork, Quinn compared food banks to a “canary in a coal mine,” because they are often the first service people turn to during difficult times, whether that is teetering the line of homelessness, struggling with unemployment or other situations. She expects more cuts to federal food programs to come. 

“If we’re going to help our most at risk and keep them healthy, that means we’re going to have to have a significant amount more money to be able to provide these items especially with the deficit of government,” she said.  

According to Feeding America, the nation’s largest food bank network, one in nine Montanans face hunger, and one in six children do. In Flathead County, 10% of the population is food insecure, according to the organization.  

Food insecurity is defined as a lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life, according to the U.S.  Department of Agriculture.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].