Arlee CDC steps up to the plate

The Arlee Community Development Corporation has been very active and effective in its nearly two decades of existence. Through the completion of a multitude of projects, from establishing trails and founding the farmer’s market, to writing workshops and youth programs and more, the organization has developed a level of experience that makes it seem they can handle anything.

Two staff additions last year, Casey Barrows and Marie Hirsch, are helping ensure it.

Many Arlee residents were facing food insecurity when the COVID-19 pandemic hit a year ago. Some people lost income and needed extra help to keep their families fed. Others needed a safe way to acquire food while they were staying home to protect vulnerable family members from the deadly virus, or while they were quarantined. The Jocko Food Pantry found itself quickly overwhelmed, after assisting the community three times per month for over 30 years. They asked one of their volunteers, Casey Barrows, to help out.

Barrows was board president of the Arlee CDC. With the food box project and the food pantry program growing, he has since taken a sabbatical from his board role to serve as food sovereignty program manager.

Along with food pantry coordinator Jitka Davis and a team of dedicated volunteers, they first moved into the “brown building,” a local name for one of the community centers, then expanded the operation into the old Hangin’ Art Gallery building in mid-summer to accommodate the growing space requirements. Besides the gallery and a coffee shop, that building has housed the CDC office and served the community many ways since it was renovated in the 1990s by Denny Nault and Donna Mollica. The CDC is now working to purchase it.

Barrows began working out efficient systems for food acquisition and distribution as the demand continually grew. With generous cash donations, private and government grants, local and corporate food donations, and a core partnership with Montana Food Bank Network, enough food materialized to successfully fill the boxes for those in need. After a late July spike, it has never slowed down, and they are now feeding between 250 and 300 individuals, nearly 80 families, each week. During the holiday season, the Missoula Food Bank came through with enough turkeys and side dishes to meet a spike in need of more than 400 people. Federal economic stimulus payments may be related to a recent drop from 100 boxes to 80 per week.

Local fresh foods are included, both food and produce. Fresh produce was packaged and frozen by the food enterprise program at Mission West Community Development Partners in Ronan to make sure it was available through the winter.

Protocols were developed early on to maintain safety of the volunteers and those picking up the food to prevent viral spread.

“It’s really not that hard,” Barrows said, and he gave the volunteers credit for being willing to continually wash hands, wear masks, set up and stay distanced, and allow their temperatures to be monitored. With their dedication to safety, there have been no known cases of COVID-19 passed through the organization.

With those practices in mind, they worked to develop an assembly line that now allows a group of eight to 10 volunteers to pack 100 boxes in under an hour every Thursday night. A second cadre of volunteers comes Friday to help load the boxes into people’s cars, so they do not have to get out and make contact or risk viral exposure. Volunteers range from about age 8 through high school and on up into their 80s, with a mix of Tribal and non-tribal community members.

But with all of the new grants and nonprofit business growth came the increased need for business management. Lucky for them, said board member Donna Mollica, they were able to hire another highly qualified and experienced person as their first ever executive director in November.

Marie Hirsch was the Business Development Center director at Mission West in Ronan for eight years. In that position, she had already acquired a passion for addressing important community issues. She had worked with Mollica, Barrows and many others in Arlee, developing local and regional partnerships and supporting startups and developing business.

“We did rise to the occasion with our history of volunteerism,” Mollica said, “but Marie got here just in the nick of time.”

The amount and diversity of funding, including their first-ever government grants, was becoming overwhelming to the all-volunteer board.

“It required experienced staffing,” Mollica said.

“For me, the chance to come into an organization that is so well-established and has such incredible depth and background has been truly a gift,” Hirsch said.

She also values the supportive relationship with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, which has been very important. Chairwoman Shelly Fyant, for example, lives in the Arlee community. Prior to her election as CSKT chair, she had worked in partnership with Arlee CDC to help implement a vision the community voiced to have strong, local food systems in place, since at least 2016.

Hirsch’s work plan includes development of existing staff to increase organizational capacity; conducting a membership drive, fundraising activities, utilizing the services of an experienced nonprofit fundraiser to capitalize on the organization’s history and experience; and further developing partnerships. In the meantime, they are looking to develop a more traditional food pantry for after COVID, where families can come in and make food selections.

For more information, or to donate or volunteer, visit arleecdc.org or call (406) 726-5550.