Mills County Storehouse Awarded $25,000 Grant From First Interstate Bank

The Mills County Storehouse received a major financial boost last week and the timing couldn’t be better.

The Storehouse has been named the recipient of a $25,000 grant from First Interstate Bank’s Believe In Local program. The surprise announcement of the grant was made during a May 13 luncheon for Mills County Storehouse volunteers, hosted by First Interstate’s Glenwood branch office.

The Storehouse was nominated for the grant by two employees at the Glenwood branch – Financial Services Representative Dee Dee Parriott and Retail Manager Brandi Fauble.

“Our Believe in Local grant campaign embodies the bank’s core values in action, celebrating nonprofit organizations like Mills County Storehouse that make a significant, positive impact in our community,” Fauble said. “I am excited for the Mills County Storehouse to receive this special grant award, helping make Glenwood a better place to live, work and raise a family.”

The Storehouse was one of 40 non-profit organizations from over 600 nominations in the bank’s 14-state footprint to be awarded a Believe In Local grant.

Kori Kenkel, President of the Mills County Storehouse Board Of Directors, expressed gratitude for the grant.

Mills County Storehouse Treasurer Vonnie Esterling said the donation is one of the largest ever for the organization  and comes at a time of great need for the food pantry as an increasing number of people in the community struggle to keep food on the table.

“One of the things we’re struggling with terribly right now is the uncertainty of everything,” Esterling said. “Donations are down a little bit, we have our regulars and when the holidays come, we always get that uptick on donations, but just the cost of food for the food pantry . . . our volunteers at the storehouse work really hard because that retail shop is what pays for the food.”

The funds generated by the sale of donated items to the Storehouse’s thrift store pays for the purchase of food for the pantry, which provides food for individuals and families in need.

The non-profit organization relies heavily on distributions from the Omaha-based Food Bank Of The Heartland, however the rising cost of groceries has put greater demand on the Food Bank, which means smaller distributions for local pantries, like the Storehouse.

“When I first started, we would have trucks every Tuesday,” Storehouse volunteer Jeff Mitts said. “Six to eight guys would spend half a day unloading trucks and now we’ve gone three weeks without a truck because they don’t really have anything available that we can use. The things they do have available we have a lot of.”

Mitts said the Storehouse supplements the shipments from the Food Bank with items purchased locally at Russ’s Market.

“We try to break even with what we take in down there (from retail store sales), but we’ve been struggling to do that,” he said.

“It’s gotten to the point where we might have to look at not giving away so much.”

Esterling said the Storehouse has been generous in responding to the hunger needs in the community.

“I feel like we are one of the most generous food pantries,” she said. “Food Bank of the Heartland - Jeff and Co.  has to do a compliance audit with them every year. They still tell us we’re one of the best food pantries they work with.

“Talking with folks from Food Bank Of the Heartland, their donations are down from the big corporations like Con Agra and some of the other ones. They kind of feel that goes back to COVID and how companies have just kind of scaled back on production ever since that.”
Ultimately, Esterling said, the Mills County Storehouse Board of Directors will decide what the $25,000 grant will be used for, but she would like to get input from Storehouse volunteers on how the money would be best spent.

“Let’s have the volunteers here suggest what they need, what they feel like we should invest this $25,000 in,” she said.

Esterling said she’s of the belief the funds should be used for a specific need or purchase, not every day operational costs, like utilities.

“We can go back to Interstate and say, ‘This is what we purchased with that very generous donation,’” she said. “This grant is something we very much appreciate and we should be able to tell them, ‘This is what your money helped us with.’”

In addition to nominating the Storehouse for the Believe In Local grant, First Interstate Bank employees in Glenwood have also donated their time working at the Storehouse as a means of giving back to the community.“We are a fully volunteer-run organization, and grants like this help us keep the lights on and provide low-cost basic needs and food to our community,” she said.