How the Church of Jesus Christ Helps Feed the Hungry in Helena, Montana

After years of planning and fundraising and months of construction, a mainstay in Helena, Montana, has a new state-of-the-art facility to continue its work to feed people in need.

A public ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house on Tuesday, October 15, 2024, marked the completion of the Helena Food Share facility. It features a commercial kitchen, an expanded warehouse, cold storage spaces, prep areas, a cooking classroom and offices.

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The Market

The Market is a food selection area in the facility that is set up like a grocery store with similarities to the bishops’ storehouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It provides a dignified experience for shoppers to select produce, dairy products, bakery goods, canned goods, and snacks like chips and cookies.

Helena Food Share Executive Director Bruce Day says those similarities were not by chance. “Going to the bishops’ storehouse was one of those field trips that we took [to learn] what we needed and wanted to be able to provide here in this community,” he said. “And so certainly, we gained some insight from that definitely in terms of how our kitchen is set up and [also] our warehouse [and] our cold storage.”

Commercial Kitchen and Cold Storage

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was one of 800 organizations and individuals whose contributions helped build the $12 million facility. The Church’s $1.3 million gift to Helena Food Share — its largest humanitarian donation in Montana — provided the fully equipped commercial kitchen capable of producing large quantities of prepared foods, such as soups, bread and cookies. A variety of cookies were among the first items made for the open house celebration, according to Sister Sarah Crowell, a Latter-day Saint missionary volunteer.

“[The Church] made this kitchen,” said Kim Dale, the Helena Food Share program operations director. “This was the game changer … this is the part of the building for us that takes us into the future.”

“This is just going to be life-changing for the amount of food we can use instead of wasting it,” added Sally Beck, kitchen manager for Helena Food Share.

Additionally, the Church’s donation provided retail refrigerators in the Market for produce and dairy items and 1,200 square feet of cold storage, a preservation must when the goal is zero waste.

Impact of the New Facility

In the past two decades, Helena Food Share has seen a 2,600% increase in food services that now serve people in need within a 90-mile radius. Its leadership anticipates the need to rise steadily with population growth.

“We’ve never had anything like this [facility] in our community,” said Dale. “It really empowers us to increase the nutritional value first and foremost for the customers that walk through our door. Having partners [such as the Church] that believe in food security for all is critical.”

The donation from the Church of Jesus Christ will help broaden Helena Food Share’s impact in many ways:

• A 20% increase in outreach after the first year of operation, serving 4,740 households and 9,960 individuals.
• A 25% increase in food distribution within the first year — some 1.1 million pounds.
• A 104% increase in warehouse space — from 2,100 square feet to 4,300 square feet.
• A 400% increase in cold storage space — from 240 square feet to 1,200 square feet.

Latter-day Saint Volunteers

Latter-day Saints are among the many volunteers at Helena Food Share. “We wholeheartedly support the Helena Food Share’s mission to serve our neighbors in their time of need,” said Jim Stanger, a Church leader in the Helena Montana Stake. “[We collaborate in this work] because of our love of Jesus Christ. We know that He would do that if He were here.”

Full-time missionaries like Sister Crowell and Sister Emily Marsh are making a difference. They volunteer at Helena Food Share every Tuesday.

“Service is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary, and I love coming here because everyone’s so happy all the time,” Sister Crowell said. “It’s really cool to feel like we’re doing something that helps the whole community. I look forward to coming here. It’s a great way to start off our week.”

“The people here are the best,” added Sister Marsh. “I feel so appreciative to just do the little things because I know this food share will help so many people.”

The collaboration between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Helena Food Share goes back more than 20 years, with members providing volunteer hours at the pantry and hosting collection drives in conjunction with an annual live Nativity.

“We just want to be able to make an impact with our brothers and sisters that are here in the community, and this does that,” said President Stanger.

About Helena Food Share

Founded in 1987, Helena Food Share provides emergency food to their neighbors who face hunger. Families come to the pantry because they are facing difficult times. No matter what their situation, Helena Food Share is dedicated to serving customers with dignity and respect and providing them with emergency food to help in any circumstance.