Feed Utah food drive culminates this week

by David Boyle
News Director
The annual Feed Utah food drive is happening March 22nd in San Juan County.
The drive is organized in March throughout the state with San Juan County’s event taking place on Saturday March 22nd.
The Utah Food Bank asks the public to place bags of non-perishable food outside their front door by 9 am on Saturday morning for pickup by volunteers who will take it to drop-off sites for redistribution through the Utah Food Bank.
Ron Nielson, Director of the Utah Food Bank Southeast Distribution Center recently shared in an interview with 92.7 FM that county residents can expect flyers on their doors this week.
“We’ll be working with the local churches to have those door hangers hung to give a little bit more information and then we’ll pick those back up on that Saturday morning. The items that we really need the most include canned meats, peanut butter, boxed meals, chili, and canned fruits and vegetables. We do ask for no glass items on that Saturday. Because there’s a lot of moving back and forth and glass items sometimes are a little tricky.”
Nielson explained that volunteers will come door to door to pick up food items from homes and take them to the LDS Stake Center in Monticello or the Food Bank Distribution Center in Blanding.
“Through these events we can make a substantial difference in keeping food and product in our pantries. Last year we did the Feed Utah Drive and donors brought in 2,170 lbs of product and we’ve set a goal of 5,000 pounds of product this year. We’d like to see that doubled and I know we can do it with a lot of help and enthusiasm.”
While the Utah Food Bank has long-served San Juan County the organization significantly expanded their footprint by building three facilities in the county including food pantries in Montezuma Creek and Monument Valley as well as the distribution center and accompanying pantry in Blanding. 
During the Covid-19 pandemic federal and state money became available to build lasting infrastructure in San Juan County. Neilson reported that infrastructure has seen significant use in year one.
“We really wondered what it would look like, but now we’ve got a pretty good snapshot of what’s happening in these buildings. We took a close look in December to see how things were and that’s not an outlier at all. This was a very normal month. In the month of December alone, between the three pantries, we served 8,886 clients in San Juan County. If you look at what the reported population of San County is, that’s 61.9% of the county benefiting from one of the three pantries in San Juan County. We found that it was eye opening.”
Nielson explained that was just shy of 122,000 pounds of food distributed in December equating about 15 points of product per client which is just shy of the Feed America goal of 17 pounds per client.
“We’re very close in that neighborhood of reaching what they’d like to see us do. We’re excited and we can see that the use is pretty tremendous. It’s quite a positive effect for those that are needing a little bit of help and a little bit of support in food insecurity.”
Nielson reports the Food Bank’s average growth is 160 new families a month between the three pantries.
While the Feed Utah Food Drive is the major volunteer effort underway now, Nielson shares they always welcome volunteers.
“Some volunteers would like to work on a regularly scheduled basis where they say, could I come in at this regular time and we’re able to sign them up and be prepared for them and be aware they’re coming and some want to bring groups in even in the evening. We’re able to for the most part facilitate those as well and put meaningful projects together for them. Just reach out to us or come in and talk to us and we can facilitate whatever works for your schedule.”
Those interested in using the services at the food pantry are invited to come to one of the local food pantries. After a four question application qualified individuals will receive an electronic identification card that tracks usage allowing patrons to use the food bank twice a month.