Cal Ranch food drive benefits local food bank

AMMON:   Cal Ranch employees helped United Way distribute donated food to local schools and food pantries.

On Tuesday, Sept. 12, 130 Cal Ranch employees volunteered to make a miracle happen that benefited United Way, which will distribute needed food to area schools and food pantries, including the Heart 2 Hand Bingham Food Pantry in Shelley. They packaged 35,000 meals in about three hours.

The effort was spearheaded by the owner of MTN OPS (Outdoor Performance Supplements), Trevor Farnes. His Utah-based company has an ongoing partnership with Cal Ranch. The company’s products are nutritional and energy supplement items sold in Cal Ranch and other outlets. It aims to fuel the outdoor industry —  hunters, fishermen, and outdoor enthusiasts. Every MTN OPS item purchased provides a portion to provide a meal for people in need.

Idaho Falls Cal Ranch manager Tom Yearsley knew of previous MTN OPS efforts held in conjunction with other Cal Ranch locations and contacted Farnes to see if a similar project could be held locally. The idea came to fruition at the Mountain America Arena parking lot, where dozens of pallets of food were stacked. MTN Ops purchased the food locally, and Cal Ranch volunteers assembled individual meals into plastic zipper bags. Items included individual macaroni and cheese cups, applesauce cups, fruit snacks, granola bars, instant oatmeal, etc.

Altogether, the company will have provided 5.5 million meals during the next month. By the end of the year, 6 million meals will be provided. 

Four members of the Heart 2 Hand Food Bingham Pantry Board of Directors were on hand to help move the food to the tables where it was being packaged in a shaded assembly line. All the volunteers were provided with black MTN OPS t-shirts, which they wore during the project.

Participation at the local food pantry has steadily increased over the last year with about 60 families getting food each week.

“We can’t begin to thank MTN OPS and Cal Ranch for their generous donation,” said food pantry director Jen Worlton. “These items especially appeal to children and will be enjoyed by those who don’t have a lot of food on hand in their homes.”

Farnes shared that there was a time when his first business venture met with failure, and his own family was left without enough food to eat. An anonymous person delivered groceries to his front door at a very desperate time when he and his wife prayed for some help.

“Hopefully, all the people that receive these meals will really feel the love that went into this and know that there are people thinking of them,” Farnes said. “I’ve been in a situation where my family needed it, and it meant the world when somebody came to help us out. It inspired us and helped us want to do more to help others. It has been a long-held goal of MTN OPS to feed the hungry.”

Yearsley gave a shout out to MTN Ops because the company plans to organize a huge project to provide a million meals in a single day.

“It will take communities coming together and lots of hands to accomplish it, but we at Cal Ranch support that effort fully,” Yearsley said. “There will be more to come.”

The pantry packs were delivered to the Heart 2 Hand Bingham Food Pantry last week. Thanks to dedicated volunteers, the packets have already been organized and stored.

“It looked like a huge mountain of food,” Worlton said. “It was our pleasure to be part of it. We are really thankful for it.”

The first packs were given out the same day they were received and continue to be available during the food pantry’s weekly distribution.