HURRICANE, Utah (ABC4) — Officials formally held a dedication ceremony for the Hurricane Valley Food Pantry’s new facility this week, setting the stage for the new facility to open.
The Utah Food Bank is officially opening its new location at 600 North and 500 West near the city’s power department. The new food pantry will be open five days a week and one Saturday a month and will replace the old Hurricane Food Pantry location.
The 9,000-square-foot building will house a storage room, pantry and office space to assist residents with services including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, multiple housing assistance programs, domestic violence counseling and the Home Energy Assistance Targeted (HEAT) program.
Most of those services previously required a round trip to St. George, a roughly four-hour drive, officials said.
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The Utah Food Bank said 18,000 Washington County residents face hunger, including one in eight children who don’t know where their next meal will come from. Last year, the Utah Food Bank distributed 2.9 million meals in Washington County alone. Jeanette Bott, president of the Utah Food Bank, expects that number to continue to grow.
“Since we opened in San Juan, we’ve served 7,000 households. This is a very rural area. People travel hours to get there,” Bott said. “We’re in the epicenter of the hurricane. I can only say the numbers are much higher than that.”
The new food bank was funded through federal funds provided by the American Rescue Plan Act to assist with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and appropriations approved by the Utah State Legislature.
“They really had a great vision to put this here. Food banks do great work throughout the state of Utah,” said Utah Sen. Don Ipson, who was instrumental in securing additional funding for the pantry. “The work they do is truly incredible and I’m honored to be a part of it.”
Bott said the food bank has been five years in the planning stages, but he can now say with confidence that Utah Food Bank is here to help and will be here to stay.
