Hurricane • Once it opens its new food pantry in June, Utah Food Bank officials expect the number of households receiving food and other assistance in the east Washington County area to double.
Currently, about 500 households crowd the cramped Hurricane Valley Food Pantry each month to receive food and other basic necessities. But Utah Food Bank officials expect those numbers will reach 1,000 or more with the opening of its new $2 million-plus facility at 600 N. 500 West in Hurricane.
The Hurricane Valley Food Pantry is located in a ramshackle business park at 450 E. 800 North in Hurricane. While the new pantry that will replace it is just a few miles away, it is light-years removed from the old facility, which is obscured by abandoned cars, about as large as two adjoining storage units and only opens for business about 10 hours a week.
“There is no parking, the building is in disrepair and it is a little frightening for people to make their way through the cars to get to the pantry,” Ginette Bott, president and CEO of the Utah Food Bank, told The Salt Lake Tribune. “The new building will be safe, clean and that element of dignity will be handed back to recipients who are in need.”
Utah Food Bank’s facility will also be open weekdays and one Saturday each month.
Bott and state Sen. Don Ipson, who sits on the Utah Food Bank’s Board of Directors, say food insecurity in Washington County is a bigger problem than many people think. Last fiscal year, they noted, the Utah Food Bank distributed 2.9 million meals or nearly 3.5 million pounds of food to Washington County residents. Roughly 18,000 county residents face hunger each day, they add.
“Now a large number of those people who have never asked for assistance … will be able to get assistance very easily,” Bott said.
Ipson, R-St. George, played a key role in helping the Utah Food Bank secure $42 million in government funding — much of it federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars provided to bring relief during COVID — to expand its operations statewide.
In addition to purchasing the new building for its Hurricane pantry, the Utah Food Bank has used the money to open two 4,000-square-foot food pantries on the Navajo Nation, one at Montezuma Creek and the other at Monument Valley. It also funded the opening of the nonprofit’s 18,000-square-foot Southeastern Distribution Center in Blanding, which includes a 1,800-square-foot pantry and will support others on the reservation.
The Utah Food Bank’s Hurricane facility will total 9,200 square feet — about 5,600 square feet for the pantry and warehouse and another 3,600 square feet of office space. Food bank staff will occupy offices on the second floor. The Five County Association of Governments — an association comprised of Beaver, the Garfield, Iron, Kane and Washington counties — will lease offices on the ground floor to provide additional services that are closely related to the challenge of food insecurity.
Those services include Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programs; domestic violence counseling; multiple housing-assistance programs; and the Home Energy Assistance Target (HEAT) program, among others.
Bott said those additional services and the partnership between the Utah Food Bank and Five County Association are what will set the Hurricane facility apart.
“This is the first pantry where we have the physical space to bring in additional services,” she said. “We want to make sure that residents in that part of Washington County can have access to those programs without having to travel to St. George.”
For his part, Ipson is largely critical of all the federal dollars poured into state economies during the pandemic, saying it fueled inflation and contributed to problems like food insecurity. He nonetheless views the government dollars he helped secure for the Utah Food Bank’s expansion project as money well spent.
“It’s probably as well run as any organization I’ve been around,” Ipson said, noting that 97% of every dollar the nonprofit receives goes directly to help the people who need it most. “That’s incredible.”
Founded in 1904, the Utah Food Bank has emerged as the state’s top nonprofit in combating hunger and food insecurity issues. In addition to its own facilities, Bott said, the organization provides food and other essentials to 275 pantries or partner agencies located in all of Utah’s 29 counties. Last fiscal year, the Utah Food Bank distributed more than 60 million pounds of food — equivalent to about 50 million meals — to families and individuals across the state.
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