NAMPA — When Paul’s Market closed in north Nampa, it left a void in the area for places residents could go to get healthy food — a problem pastor Daniel Mangeac hopes to help remedy.
Mangeac and others at Good News Community Church are working to develop a permanent food pantry in north Nampa on the side of the church building.
The pantry would supply residents of north Nampa, which is considered a food desert, access to the food they need.
According to an Invest Health study, about 33 percent of north Nampa residents live in a food desert, meaning they are more than a half-mile away from the nearest grocery store. That becomes an even bigger problem when many in the area also don’t have access to transportation.
“In this neighborhood, it’s easier to get hardcore drugs, like methamphetamine, than it is to get an apple,” Mangeac said. “And I think that’s a problem.”
Since the study came out, there have been several efforts to meet this need. Jackie Yarbrough, Idaho Foodbank director of partnerships and programs, said the Foodbank started a mobile food pantry in north Nampa in May, which drops off emergency supplies of food on the first Wednesday of every month.
Yarbrough said the Foodbank operates more than 40 mobile food pantries across Idaho and has distributed more than 46,000 pounds of food to north Nampa since May.
When Mangeac approached the Foodbank and said he wanted to build a permanent food pantry attached to his church, Yarbrough said the Foodbank was on board to work with him.
The mobile pantry moved its monthly stops to the church’s parking lot so residents would get used to the location, and the Foodbank has helped Good News staff with the process of building a new permanent pantry.
The location is a prime spot in the center of north Nampa, Yarbrough said. On the corner of 12th Avenue North and Seventh Street North, and right next to Lakeview Park, Mangeac said the church is easily accessible to most of the population that needs it.
The idea came to Mangeac after he saw the need in the community through speaking with fellow church members and other north Nampa residents. There is interest in the community to address the area’s food desert issues, he said. In the first meeting they held to brainstorm ways to tackle the problem, Mangeac said about 30 people showed up.
When built, the pantry will be about 880 square feet on the east side of the church. There was no space inside the existing building to put a full food pantry, Mangeac said, plus the Idaho Foodbank recommended using a separate building.
Church leadership is waiting on approval from the city to move into the final paperwork, which they hope to have finished by the end of this month, and then they will work on fundraising. Mangeac estimates it will take about $130,000 and about three months to build.
Once it is an official partner of the Idaho Foodbank, the church can receive food whenever needed to fill the pantry, Yarbrough said. Mangeac said at first, the planned schedule will include food dumps once a month, but if the need arises, they will increase the frequency of the Foodbank’s visits.
Mangeac said he hopes to have the food pantry open by this summer. When finished, he said it will be the only food pantry in the neighborhood.
