The Idaho Foodbank launches capital campaign, nutrition month
LEWISTON, ID – The Idaho Foodbank is bringing attention to an important aspect of hunger, celebrating National Nutrition Month by focusing on the growing efforts to provide nutritious food for Idaho’s food insecure, a campaign championed by Regence BlueShield of Idaho.
On Thursday, March 3, the Foodbank kicked off National Nutrition Month at the construction location of its new facility in Lewiston. With the backdrop of the foundation and progress of the new structure, set to serve the five counties in north central Idaho and open in the summer, the Foodbank talked about the importance of building on recent successes in collaboration to not only feed Idaho’s families in need, but provide nutritious food that helps the overall health of the population enduring hunger.
The new facility is being funded by supporters statewide, with a local goal of $275,000 more to help the statewide campaign fully fund the project.
“Nutrition remains one of the top concerns as we spread our reach to help as many Idahoans as possible every day,” said Karen Vauk, President and CEO of The Idaho Foodbank. “Simply providing food is not enough. Every effort must be made to ensure the food we provide is nutritious and helps keep Idaho families healthy during their time of need.”
As part of a month-long campaign to encourage conversations about nutrition and efforts through the Foodbank to provide nutrition education, the Foodbank shared updated data about the food provided through their three warehouses to the 230 partners around the state. Vauk announced 82 percent of the food distributed in 2015 was classified as nutritious, a success that will be benefited by the new facility in Lewiston, which will allow for more space to store donations of perishable and fresh food from local agriculture and manufacturers.