Libby Food Pantry seeks new home

The potential redevelopment of Asa Wood could prove a windfall for the school district, but not for the food pantry that calls the building home.

The Libby Food Pantry, which has used the property for years to keep its freezers and dispense foodstuffs, has just a few months to find a new facility. Speaking on behalf of the group, Keith Ivers petitioned the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners this week for help with the relocation.

“We are needing assistance from some quarter,” Ivers told commissioners on June 23. “We need housing.”

The problem is multifold. When the idea of redeveloping the former Asa Wood Elementary School first emerged in 2019, the nonprofit behind the proposal pledged to keep the food pantry on site. Since then, the school district has opted to go in a different direction.

Rather than eat the cost of cleaning the building prior to redevelopment, as required by the nonprofit pitching the project, school officials secured a federal Brownfields grant to cover the cleanup. They have since decided to market the property independently and the nonprofit, American Covenant Senior Housing Foundation of Kalispell, has targeted a different location in the region for its project.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the Libby Food Pantry. The skyrocketing real estate market has made possible landlords hard to come by, Ivers told the commissioners. And it’s made buying a building cost-prohibitive.

“All of those buildings that have been sitting empty for 10 to 20 years now have a great deal of value to their owners,” Ivers said. “There are not many facilities out there that we may be able to move into.”

He also noted the sweetheart deal the pantry had with the school district. While other community groups have used Asa Wood as a base of operations, the Libby Food Pantry has drawn, free of charge, on the building’s electricity to keep its freezers running.

“There are other groups that use it, but realistically it’s been us using a lot of their electricity,” Ivers said. “Our budget has never included a per se operating budget.”

Almost every dollar that comes to the pantry goes back out to the community, Ivers said. The organization serves about 350 individuals each month and roughly 150 families.

Pantry volunteers remain in talks with school officials to find a potential new site within the district, according to Ivers. They are looking for grants that may aid in their search. He also asked that commissioners consider a levy to support the organization.

While Ivers acknowledged that a tax was not the best-case solution to the problem from the perspective of local officials and voters, he argued that taxpayers had supported the organization through the school district levy.

County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) encouraged Ivers to continue looking for grants. While supportive of the Libby Food Pantry’s mission, he pointed out that even school levies had struggled to win favor from voters.

“We’re the pinch point, but the fact is it’s going to be reaching out to the public and would they be willing to support that? We’ve all seen school levies come and go,” Bennett said. “They passed one a few years ago, which was desperately needed … but many have come and gone.”

He suggested looking at dollars coming to the region through the American Recovery Plan Act. Bennett pledged to continue searching, along with County Commissioner Josh Letcher (D-3), for applicable funding.

“Keep us in the loop and I’ll continue to look at some of that funding that we’ve received,” Bennett said.