Food bank that serves neediest community in Marion County gets a huge boost

IDANHA – To use the fellowship hall at the Idanha Community Church for meetings and community events, boxes of donated food must be moved to clear enough space so a dozen people can gather around the wood stove.

When the meeting ends, everything is moved back – and more food brought in – for the weekly Friday food bank, which distributes food to residents in one of the neediest cities in Marion County.

In the six years the food bank in Idanha has existed, it has expanded significantly to meet the needs of the community, but has outgrown its space.

The Idanha Food Bank serves more than 70 families and its food reaches over 170 people each month with the majority of the food coming from the Marion-Polk Food Share. 

The Idanha Food Bank has received over $20,000 in grants and donations to build a series of new buildings to better store and distribute food.

“It’s really been a boon culturally,” Idanha Community Church pastor Gregg Ellison said. “I’ve seen people flourish, so to speak, or bloom out a little bit here as they come and get the food and come out of their shells a little bit.”

The need in Idanha

The poverty level in Idanha – located in both Marion and Linn counties 55 miles east of Salem – is more drastic than any other incorporated city in Marion County.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the median household income of a resident in Idanha at $29,083, and 18.8 percent of residents live in poverty. In Marion County, the average income is $50,775 and 13.6 percent of residents live in poverty.

Since the town’s logging mills closed in the 1990s, the population has shrunk to 140 in 2017, down from 230 in 2005.

Some older residents can’t leave their homes.

“I think that food bank is just a ministry, just an outreach from our church,” said Debby Ruyle, a church member who was instrumental in procuring the grants.

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Though the goal of the food bank in Idanha is to feed those in need in their relatively isolated part of the world, they don’t turn away anyone.

There also are homeless camps in the woods around Idanha out of sight from casual observers, but those residents come to the food bank.

People have come from Marion Forks, Silverton, Gates, Mill City and Newberg to get food from the Idanha Food Bank.

How Idanha Food Bank started

The food bank in Idanha started in 2012 with Ralph Swisher – known as Bart – as the driving force. But after Swisher was slowed due to cancer, Steve Kinney took over as the point man.

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In those early days, it was operated out of the old Green Veneer factory and relied on hand-me-down food from a similar food bank in Mehama.

To get food to those who needed it, Kinney delivered boxes of food home to home.

After the Idanha Community Church was gifted to Detroit Community Church in 2015, its fellowship hall became the new home for the food bank.

Some residents in Idanha can’t make it when the food bank is open from 10 a.m. to noon on Fridays.

“And a lot of people that would take food if you delivered it to them wouldn’t if they had to come get it," Kinney said. “We’ve only got a couple like that, and my wife (Barbara) does some deliveries.” 

The two new 12-foot-by-16-foot buildings being built on the church property – and the future walk-in refrigerated building – will be more easily accessible from the road and make it easier to load and unload food.

The two main buildings have been started, with foundations poured, but there is no timeline to when they will be completed.

They will also allow enough space in the fellowship hall to be able to host community meals for those who come to receive food from the food share program.

Debby Ruyle finds a new way to help

Ruyle is a city councilor in Detroit and was one of the driving forces in the creation of the new park system in that city.

Her ability to physically help at the food bank has been diminished the past few years as she’s battling cancer.

But she helped by writing grant applications that brought in $1,000 from Marion-Polk Food Share, $9,000 from the Oregon Food Share and $10,000 from the Larry & Jeanette Epping Family Foundation, as well as a $500 donation from the local Can-Can Club.

Frank Lumber Company donated the wood to frame the building and Freres Lumber Company donated plywood for construction.

Scott Lunski, owner of Santiam Ice Company in Idanha, has donated metal coated Styrofoam panels to build a free-standing walk-in refrigerator.

“The grant thing was something I could sit at home and work on, so that’s why I don’t feel like I have much to offer,” Ruyle said. “I should do more.”

Ruyle is the only one who understates her impact.

“She does more than most 10 other people around here,” Kinney said.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler