Montana Food Bank Network is Montana's only statewide food bank and its sole fully-privileged Feeding America member. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Missoula, it distributes food to more than 300 partners, including local food banks, pantries, schools, and meal sites across one of the largest and least densely populated states in the country. Gayle Carlson serves as President and CEO, and the organization recently opened a new 13.5-million-dollar Missoula headquarters to meet rising demand.
Montana Food Bank Network sources food at scale and distributes it statewide through more than 300 partners, including local food banks and pantries that it supplies as a network hub. Montana's size and emptiness make distribution the central challenge: serving communities hundreds of miles apart, including seven tribal nations, requires a logistics operation built for distance. The new Missoula headquarters added warehouse and cold-storage capacity for fresh food.
Gayle Carlson serves as President and CEO of Montana Food Bank Network, leading the statewide hub through a period of record demand. She oversaw the move into the organization’s new 13.5-million-dollar headquarters in Missoula, a major expansion of capacity for hunger relief across the state.
The Network serves all of Montana, from the cities of Missoula, Billings, and Great Falls to remote rural communities and tribal reservations. Montana combines a high cost of living in its growing western cities with deep, isolated rural poverty, and the Network is the single statewide source behind the local food banks and pantries that serve both.
Yes. Montana Food Bank Network is a registered 501(c)(3) and Montana’s sole fully-privileged Feeding America member. Donors can review its financials through Charity Navigator and GuideStar. Bulk buying and donated food mean a gift produces many meals.
Donations and volunteer shifts run through mfbn.org. Volunteers sort and pack food and help at distributions, and cash gifts go furthest because of the food bank’s purchasing power.
Montana Food Bank Network is the statewide hub that supplies local food banks, while organizations like the Missoula Food Bank & Community Center run direct, choice-model pantries in their own communities. For statewide giving, the Network is the central organization; for hyper-local giving, a community food bank may fit better.
300+ partners, including local food banks the Network supplies.
School and weekend food support, including BackPack programs.
Food assistance for older adults on fixed incomes.
Distribution to remote communities and reservations.
Sources: Montana Food Bank Network website (mfbn.org), and Missoulian, KPAX, and Montana Public Radio reporting on the new Missoula headquarters. We are not affiliated with Montana Food Bank Network and receive no compensation for this listing. Spotted an error? [email protected]
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