The North Valley Food Bank's rural pantry delivery van outside of the building on Tuesday morning. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)

While prices for goods and services are on the rise as of late, many companies can offset the higher costs by raising prices but nonprofit organizations cannot.

Drastic inflation has affected local residents, businesses and nonprofits recently, most notably in the price of food and gasoline. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index, a figure used to measure inflation, increased 8.5% for the year ending in March.

Nonprofit organizations in Whitefish and across the Flathead Valley provide a range of services from food to medical care to outdoor recreational opportunities. Many have felt the strains caused by increased prices but manage to continue providing services to the community.

Along with the inflation of products and services, nonprofit organizations in the Valley have had increased need as well.

Lauren Jarrold, North Valley Food Bank operations manager, has seen an increase in the number of customers served here in Whitefish and says other pantries report the same.

“In the first quarter of 2021, we had 127 first-time households that came in… for that same time period this year, we had 215 new, first-time households — that’s a 69% increase in first-time customers,” Jarrold told the Pilot last week. “We’re also seeing a 35% increase in overall pantry visits, whether someone is new or not.”

During the first three months of this year, North Valley Food Bank had 3668 visits to their pantry. The Whitefish food bank is not the only one to face an escalation of needs either. Jamie Quinn, executive director of the Flathead Food Bank, said they have seen an increase of 20 to 40 new households a week to the pantry in Kalispell. While Jarrold added that she is in communication with food pantries across Lincoln and Glacier counties and every single one in the last two months has seen an increase in services.

Additionally, 100 households utilized the new grocery store at the Whitefish food bank just last week, setting a new record for the store.

“Seems like each month, each week, this year it (the need) just grows a little bit, by a little bit, by a little bit,” Jarrold noted.

If dealing with the increased need was not enough, the increased cost of food presents another challenge. North Valley Food Bank gets food donations from the community and from food rescue from places like Super One Foods, Safeway, Costco, Marcus and several other places around town. After a decrease in food rescue donations following the holidays, the food bank received 70,000 pounds of donated food in March.

To supplement these sources, the food bank purchases food through the Montana Food Bank Network to keep the cost down. They pay less than they’d pay at a grocery store but they still see the increase in prices.

Quinn recently compiled a list to show how prices of some of the most popular food items the pantries purchase have changed since March 2020. She found that, on average, food prices have increased by 40%. Macaroni and cheese saw the greatest increase at 93% and green beans were up 43%.

When it comes to milk, the pantry pays grocery store prices, as there is no discount.

“Looking at milk specifically, in August of last year it was $2.78 to buy a gallon and just this week the price went up again for us and it’s $3.38 a gallon to buy milk,” Jarrold said. “We plan on purchasing some things, but donations are just so essential for us to be able to operate and to meet the increasing number of customers.”

Quinn added that many parents struggle in the summertime due to the lack of breakfast and lunch the children would normally receive at school. State policy adds to the stress because Montana has no plan in place to receive federal funding for SNAP, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, for the summer months.

“Our households are going to see continued inflation and their SNAP benefits are about to decrease for the first time in about two years,” Quinn said. “That’s something that's going to push more households to food banks because they have less resources on their card.”

Despite the obstacles of increased prices and increased need, among other things, the North Valley Food Bank and the Flathead Food Bank are able to rise to the challenge.

“We are able to feed our neighbors because of the generosity of the Flathead,” Quinn said. “There’s this misconception, seemingly, that we receive federal funding. We don’t. We don't receive federal, state… county, or city (funding). We are solely funded by the community.

“The community has made it so we don’t have to worry about whether or not we can feed people,” she added. “We were able to get through a pandemic, I know we can get through this in the same way.”

INFLATION HAS noticeably affected food and gasoline prices, but that’s not all that has seen increases lately. The cost of medical supplies has skyrocketed in the last two years and a local nonprofit, Shepherd’s Hand Free Clinic, which provides medical care to the underserved, is feeling the effects of the higher prices.

“We have felt the most impact in supply costs, such as nitrile exam gloves. Over the past two years, inventory constraints coupled with increased demand led to a 600% price increase,” said Jennifer Hyatt, executive director of Shepherd’s Hand. “While we have seen a stabilizing of pricing and availability, we are still looking at costs that are well above where we were at pre-pandemic.”

Flathead Spay and Neuter Director Mimi Beadles explained that the low-cost spay and neuter clinic uses the same medical supplies that are used for humans, and therefore feels the effects of inflation.

“Suture has done nothing but go up in price; all of our IV fluids quadrupled in price (a few years ago) and have stayed that way,” Beadles explained. “This year we can’t get our preferred surgical gloves. Vaccines have gone up a lot.”

SUPPORT FROM the community is what keeps nonprofits running while they experience increased costs and increased use. Margosia Jadkowski, Director of Lands and Partnerships with Whitefish Legacy Partners, explained the troubles they are facing are not coming from just one place.

“It’s a little bit hard to discern what’s caused by inflation, what’s caused by labor shortages, what’s caused by increased demand for services in the valley but we’re certainly seeing impacts from all of those things,” she said.

Regarding the Whitefish Trail, the two major areas of concern for Jadkowski are maintenance and new construction. Whitefish Legacy Partners maintains all the trailheads which requires the purchase of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, trash cans and dog cleanup bags, all of which have increased in price and in some cases have had additional tariffs imposed.

As far as new construction, they recently found that concrete picnic tables have nearly doubled in price and finding contractors in this valley is difficult.

“We’re lucky that we have a number of local businesses and contractors and vendors who are great supporters of ours and excited to work on these kinds of community projects,” Jadkowski said. “Even with these increases in prices, it hasn’t impacted our ability to complete our work and meet the community’s needs because we have such great support.”

Like many nonprofits, Legacy Partners is experiencing a greater volume of users on the trails. But that is something they see as a plus.

“That’s more people getting outside and enjoying our local open lands and that‘s what our work is about, so some of the pressure that we’re seeing financially is also from increased use, but that is something to celebrate,” said Jadkowski.

The common thread that weaves throughout the struggles that nonprofits are currently facing is the importance of community support. Many local nonprofits believe it is the strength of the community that will see them through the trying times.

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