Targeted Rural Underserved Track (TRUST) scholar and MS3 Erin A. Calkins addressed food insecurity head-on for her WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience (WRITE) project. Calkins created the GROW 406 Food Pantry Project that has so far offered food to more than 250 people at five weekend pop-up events in Anaconda, Montana.

Calkins was inspired to create the food pantry after hearing from many patients and community members that the current food bank wasn’t able to meet the needs of the community. Her project’s food pantry is designed to fill a gap  by being available on the weekends for four hours.

The project includes eight community partners so far. Foods provided weekly include apples, romaine lettuce, large carrots, tomatoes, onions, celery, garlic, cucumbers, whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, long-grain brown rice, lentils and black beans. Vegetable and black bean soup was also prepared fresh by one of the partners and served in ‘to go’ containers. All the ingredients in the soup are available at the pantry, in the event someone wanted to re-create the soup.

“While it is not a final solution for food insecurity, it’s a start, and I look forward to helping this project grow,” Calkins said.

You can learn more about Calkin’s project on their food bank’s Facebook page. The group’s web page is here. In the photos above you see Erin, her husband Anthony, and son Remy, 7.