MIDDLETON, Idaho — The Middleton Food Bank is known for giving to others, but at the moment the volunteers are the ones looking for a little extra help.
The Executive Director of the food bank, Joseph Dumoulin, said his crew helps around 1,000 people a month.
Started in 1972 by Patricia Sayre, Dumoulin took over the food bank about 18 years ago. Dumoulin said he got involved because he's retired and liked helping people.
However, running the food bank is no easy task. Dumoulin said he works seven days a week, getting up bright and early most of those days. He and another volunteer travel around the Treasure Valley collecting food from grocery stores, other local food banks and any place that's looking to donate food.
"The main thing is, to anybody that needs food, they can get food from us," Dumoulin said. "We give to people that live in their cars. We try to give them pop-top cans and stuff easy to eat stuff."
However, the Middleton Food Bank is limited on how much food they are able to give out, because they don't have electricity to power their fridges and freezers. Currently, they are keeping perishable foods and cold foods at volunteers' homes.
Dumoulin is looking for some monetary donations to help hire an electrician and wire their two storage units to get electricity.
"I think that if it wasn't for us, there would be a lot of hungry people in this town. There'd be a lot of people hurting for food," Dumoulin said.
Dumoulin said he and two other volunteers have to transport all the cold foods to the food bank on distribution days. He hopes getting the refrigerators running would help relieve some of their workloads.
Anyone looking to help donate can do so at the Clarity Bank in Middleton where the food bank has an account. People looking to donate should say the money is for "Middleton Food Bank."
People can also deliver the money to Dumoulin at the food bank on Mondays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The food bank is located right behind the Family Dollar Store.
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist: