Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – The Becker County Food Pantry officially cut the ribbon on their new distribution center on Terry Street Wednesday afternoon.
In a ceremony hosted by the Detroit Lakes Regional Chamber of Commerce, Dale Storey, the food pantry’s board president, said he was thankful for all of the donations and fundraising efforts that went towards the new building. He also pointed out that the only reason they were cutting the ribbon on their new building was because of regular stream of donations from their regulars and their volunteers.
“Today, for me, it’s a day of thanks,” said Storey. “Thanking the city and the county for kickstarting our campaign with their donations. We had Bremer Foundation give us a grant to help out. And then the ones that kept us going was our donors, our consistent donors that we have all the time. They helped us stay focused and stay where we need to be and they’re the reason that we’re here because everything we get is donated.”
Also in attendance at the ribbon cutting were Elaine Forsell and Julie Sanders, two of the original board members of the food pantry who served prior to the board’s incorporation in 1982.
Forsell said she remembers the original food pantry was a single room with a couple tables of items in the basement of the old Holmes Junior High School.
“We started in the basement of the Holmes Center with just a table and some shelves, no refrigeration, no freezers,” said Forsell. “And we even delivered the first few boxes … we delivered them to social services and to the churches.”
Sanders said she remembers her toddler children holding onto her skirt as she used to deliver boxes of food to county human services or to a nearby church. She added she’s so happy to see that getting the food to people has become easier through their distribution center.
“I’m so happy that getting food to people has become much easier,” said Sanders. “And one of the regrets that I have is, well, we didn’t have a lot to give out, but I feel we were so miserly compared to what (the Becker County Food Pantry) is today. And I just love that so much. I’m so taken with that.”
Minnesota state Rep. Jim Joy, R-Hawley, said he thinks it’s immensely special to have a food pantry, like ours, in Becker County; serving community members who need it.
“This, to me, is just wonderful,” said Joy. “I haven’t been out here before, but I remember the old one they had, so this is well improved. To have this in your community and the ability to help people, this is wonderful. And the good thing about a facility like this … now you get to shop. So if there are items they don’t want, they stay on the shelf for someone else. It’s a great thing to put to use. What a wonderful facility. It looks great.”
David Meyer, Becker County commissioner for District 2, said he’s happy the county and city were able to help with funding for the new building and it’s important to show the importance of our food pantry to other counties with the hope they will make their own pantries a priority as well.
“You don’t think about how things start out, but it started out with a couple of tables in the basement of the old Holmes Junior High, which isn’t there anymore,” said Meyer. “This is a nice facility and I’m glad that the city and county could help out and make it nice. Because we have to make a statement in our county that we are going to support food pantries and what they stand for and what they mean.”
The food pantry has been technically open for the past two weeks, but much of those distribution days were spent getting the volunteers up to speed with their new computer system and accounting procedures. Officials said they have already seen an uptick in traffic with the new facility.

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