The Crookston Care and Share announced this week they would begin operating a food shelf out of their facility two days a week starting on March 16. The food shelf will be open Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Crookston had been without a food shelf since October when the North Country Food Bank (NCFB) closed the food shelf as part of its move from Crookston to East Grand Forks. NCFB Director Suzie Novak said the food bank has been trying to find another partner to run a food shelf in town for some time. “The food shelf that we were operating out of the food bank here in Crookston ceased operations in about mid-October,” said Novak. “Since that time, we’ve been trying to find another partner to start up a food shelf here in the community. Our food shelf was serving about 250-300 families a month, so we needed to get something going here.”
Rachel LaFerriere, the kitchen manager at the Care and Share, started a program called boxes of Hope in November that provided food to those in need in the absence of a food shelf. She said that a meeting to discuss funding with the program led to her working with Novak and the Care and Share Board to start a new food shelf. “In November, I started boxes of hope to supplement since there was no food shelf,” said LaFerriere. “And since November we’ve served about 600 people, so it’s been successful. But we depended solely on donations we received from Hugo’s, Walmart, and a couple of other small stores in town. There was a big variance in the products we received, sometimes we wouldn’t have meat, or there were a lot of pastries, it was always different. Sometimes it would be challenging for people to plan meals based on the boxes we gave them because we didn’t have certain things. I met with Shannon Stassen, who was the City Administrator the day before he resigned, to talk about funding and how to get some help to get this program going, and he sent me to Suzie. We’ve worked together for the last few months with Brian (Halos, Care and Share Director) and the board of the Care and Share. We’ll be starting a food shelf out of Care and Share on March 16.”
The Care and Share used to have a food shelf several years ago, and the new food shelf will be at the same location on the west side of the building, said Halos. “Same entrance, we’ll put some signage up of some kind,” said Halos. “It’s kind of a hidden door you don’t see from the street. The best way to get there is to park on the street and follow the sign around to the west side of the building.”
Those needing a handicap accessible way to reach the food shelf can either use a secondary entrance or have a proxy pick up food for them explains Halos. “The building isn’t real handicap accessible, there are steps everywhere,” said Halos. “If you go to the west side of the building, there is about half a flight of stairs you have to go down. If you need handicap accessibility, there is a door if you go to the back of the building, the south end kitchen entrance, there is a door at ground level, and that would bring you in with no steps. It’s a bit of a jaunt through the hallways to get there, but it would be no steps. The other thing is they can have somebody pick up an order for them, have a proxy come in.”
