Hunger Coalition receives major food delivery from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter

Sep 18, 2023

Journalist/Author

Youth volunteers helped distribute food from The Hunger Coalition to the Hope for the Hungry Shoshone food pantry on Wednesday.

A semi-trailer loaded with 40,000 pounds of food arrived Wednesday at The Hunger Coalition in Bellevue from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Teams of volunteers unloaded the shipment, some of which was destined for food pantries in Richfield and Shoshone.

“This has not happened in the past,” said Heather Wesley, communications director for a regional “stake” of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that includes Blaine and Lincoln counties.

Wesley has volunteered at the nonprofit Hunger Coalition for eight years. She said she has regularly offered to arrange for a food shipment from Salt Lake City but was only recently taken up on the offer.

“The Hunger Coalition has been well-funded privately,” Wesley said. “But with skyrocketing food prices recently, they decided to finally take us up on it.”

Twenty-seven pallets of food were delivered from the church’s Welfare Square in Salt Lake City to be distributed to The Hunger Coalition, the Shoshone food pantry, The Senior Connection in Hailey, St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Ketchum, and the Richfield food pantry.

About two dozen local volunteers helped unload and distribute donated food on Wednesday.

About two dozen members of the Wood River Valley community volunteered to help unload pallets, distribute boxes to the various organizations and further distribute the food with trucks and trailers.

The platform JustServe.org was used to help coordinate volunteers and “will continue to provide a resource for people to find organizations in need of volunteers in our valley,” Welsey said.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement on Wednesday saying, “Amidst the ongoing challenges that many individuals and families face in Blaine and Lincoln counties, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is honored to play a part and serve with other organizations that reflect values of charity, kindness, and unity.”

Wesley said the church has a “massive” warehouses in Salt Lake City and regularly ships emergency food assistance to urban areas in the region, including Twin Falls.

“But they have never come this far north before,” she said. 

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“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is honored to play a part and serve with other organizations that reflect values of charity, kindness, and unity.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Journalist/Author

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