Feeding the hungry through mobile and local food pantries

WORLAND – In the three months since the state of Wyoming started issuing a series of public health orders and directives, hoping to limit the spread of COVID-19 infection in the state, Wyoming businesses have been hurting. Unemployment is on the rise with the state rate at 9.2% in April and Washakie County's rate at 7.4%. Many people who work for these businesses have had to scramble to feed their families.

When Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies brought its drive-up mobile food pantry to Worland in March and April, more than 40 people waited their turn to pick up a few bags of groceries. A seemingly endless line of cars and trucks snaked its way through a queue in the Washakie County Fairgrounds' parking lot for both events. It was clear that the household economics of a great many ordinary Worland folks had been thrown into jeopardy.

Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies will be back at the Washakie County Fairgrounds this Saturday, June 13, from 1 to 3 p.m.

With Wyoming COVID-19 precautions being lifted, little by little, and businesses seeming to rise out of their forced hibernation, will local food insecurity be similar to that seen in April?

It is difficult to say. Perhaps there is a clue in the recent experience of Worland's Washakie County Ministerial Association Center food pantry, at 620 Big Horn Avenue. According to Director Ward Byrd, there was actually less need for groceries in the past month than he had expected. "We normally average 60 to 70 people a month," Byrd said. "Last month, we only had 29 people come in."

Byrd wasn't sure why this might have been the case. "I don't know whether they're afraid to go outside – you know there's a lot of older people." Byrd said he was hopeful that people were making ends meet and doing well.

Byrd said that Blair's Super Market had donated quite a bit of supplies to the food pantry. "We're well supplied right now," Byrd said. The Ministerial Center Food Pantry is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 to 11 a.m.

Food insecurity remains a serious problem in Wyoming, with or without COVID-19. According to a Monday press release, First Lady Jennie Gordon's Wyoming Hunger Initiative named six Regional Directors to represent the Initiative across the state. Regional Directors will build and connect networks of local anti-hunger organizations and create a platform for communication of innovative ideas to solve food insecurity. "Regional Directors were chosen to represent a region based on their awareness of food insecurity or role within their community that is directly related to food insecurity," Gordon said.

Gordon named Caitlin Youngquist as the North Regional Director, covering a district that includes Big Horn, Hot Springs, Park and Washakie counties. Youngquist is the Northwest Area Agriculture Educator for the University of Wyoming Extension in Worland.