Billings Food Bank

Billings Food Bank was formed in 1982. Originally designed to serve agencies having food programs, and primarily in Yellowstone County. It has now evolved into a truly independent food bank responding to requests from anywhere throughout the world. If we have the ability to help, we do. In addition to food, we also supply appliances, furniture, equipment, household needs, beds, and mattresses, as available.In the last 10 years we have also established the Fortin Culinary Center where we teach culinary job training skills. We have so far had over 200 graduates of this program with a 99% success rate of placing those individuals in jobs. The demand for people with culinary skills is tremendous. We have a very strict set of rules for our students as there is no charge for the course, but if you dont show up you are not allowed to continue. We have literally changed lives with this program. We are truly proud to have moved many of our students from a generational norm of living on the system, to now being productive members of the work force.Our Fortin Culinary Center has also become a source of revenue and training for our students and others. We have a large reception hall seating 300 which can be divided into two sections for meetings, weddings, receptions, company parties, memorial services, job training sessions, Serve Safe Classes, etc. We serve many banquets on a regular basis, which of course, is tremendous training for our students. We also utilize our certified commercial kitchen and food processing center (originally funded in part with a Montana State Growth Thru Ag Grant)to prepare meals for other agencies and programs. We prepared over 301,000 meals for the homeless population and other social services agencies. Using our facility we have processed, preserved and repackaged hundreds of thousand pounds of meats, produce, beans (dry) etc. for use in preparing these meals. The Culinary Center is also a shared use facility for food entrepreneurs to test new products or use as a new business base. We have been a starting point for many! We opened our Fortin Caf and Gift shop in response to a neighborhood demand, which has now turned into a popular breakfast and lunch venue. It is also a great training field for our students, many of whom we actually hire. We have two fulltime chefs, one teaches our classes and one runs the caf. We also encourage social enterprise by promoting and selling art and other items for area artists. And we rent our beautiful commercial kitchen to entrepreneurs wishing to start or expand their food related business. We do this on an hourly basis so young businesses do not have to incure a heavy debt load as their business develops. We have been the catalyst for many businesses that have now grown and started their own places.We provide cooking and nutrition classes to not only our recipients, but to youth and others as our time and facility use allows. We serve as a training ground for many folks with special needs, and have actually hired several.We have also co-sponsored many causes and events, such as "The Cooking for Kidneys" for folks with kidney issues (5,000); Quilts & Blankets (1,507); Pet Food Pantry (15,811); Baby Pantry (4,321); Hygiene Kits (10,493); Backpacks for Kids w/ School Supplies (3,600) as well as Snack Packs for Kids with food; and more. The breakdown for ages: 28% 0-17; 47% 18-60; 23% 60 and up.