Martha and Mary's Food Ministry, which has served Jerome's working families facing financial hardship for over a decade, is searching for a new location after outgrowing its current space.
The food pantry, which is currently housed in a residence on 3rd Avenue owned by Saint Jerome Community Catholic Church, serves an average of 600 families per month. Assistant Coordinator Jeff Schroeder said the organization has been at the location for 13 years, far longer than originally planned.
"So we moved into this house with the idea that we would be here just for a short while, and that ended up being 13 years," Schroeder said.
Space constraints have always been challenging for the pantry, which operates out of a converted house and processes 45,000 pounds of food monthly.
"So we looked for more space around, [but we] couldn't find really a good building," Schroeder said.
After struggling to find a suitable space, Schroeder proposed leasing property at the Jerome County Fairgrounds for a new building.
Jerome County Commissioner Ben Crouch said the commission has been receptive to the fairgrounds proposal, though not everyone agrees with the plan.
The County has posted a survey to its website, inviting residents to weigh in on over the next two weeks as to whether the fairgrounds are a suitable place for a food pantry.
"We talked to him extensively about that. We've gone back-and-forth a little bit about different ideas," Crouch said. "There has been some question about whether they ought to go there or not, so what we've done is we put a survey together."
Cathy Roemer expressed concerns about using fairgrounds property for purposes unrelated to agricultural education, which she said is the facility's primary mission.
"The mission comes down to promoting, preserving, and educating the community about agriculture, and that includes the county fair," Roemer said. "To slice and dice Fairground property off to other interests— to me was not the best use of taxpayer owned property."
Schroeder said working at the food pantry has broadened his perspective on the diverse needs of community members seeking assistance.
"I see that the mom's a single mom. I see a single dads, I see the older people that that just need a little help. I see people that are caught. They just lost their job. They had medical issues. I mean just so many different things that have come up," " explained Schoeder. "I used to be very black-and-white. Now, I see there's almost 360 different degrees of what people need."
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