Idaho Falls Soup Kitchen celebrates of 'free lunch'

The Idaho Falls Soup Kitchen will celebrate 30 years of with a June 30 open house. 

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
— Matthew 13:31-32

If you took all the meals the Idaho Falls Soup Kitchen has served in the past 30 years and put them all together, you would have enough food for the entire population of Columbus, Ohio, the 15th largest city in the United States.

Originally known as St. Mark’s Christian Sandwich Kitchen, the idea for the a soup kitchen came into being when two members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Joanne Galbraith and Lois Greenwood, of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church were driving home from a hunger conference in Boise, discussing what they could do to alleviate hunger in the community. They started in the church basement with a coffee pot and hotplate and a $500 loan from Idaho’s Episcopal Bishop, The Rev. David B. Birney. Church members and friends pitched in to help, and before long the word was out that a person could get a free lunch on South Boulevard.

In the first 18 months, 1,805 meals were served, on weekends. Today, in the Community Outreach Center, next door to where St. Mark’s was, the Soup Kitchen is open every day, serving an average of 4,700 per month.

In all, between June 1985 and May 2015, the official count of total meals served was 826,526.
“One thing we have never done is ask people questions about why they were there,” said Graeme Galbraith, another early volunteer. “There were people who were there out of necessity, and there were some people who made a social occasion of it,”  he said. “It has been a total volunteer effort since the beginning.”

Support from the community has been broad, and sometimes surprising. Galbraith said there was a couple that ate at the Soup Kitchen frequently for a few months (he could not remember their name) then made a generous donation once they were back on their feet.

The average cost of a meal served at the Soup Kitchen is $1. There are trained teams of volunteers for every day of the year, and about 800 people help at the Soup Kitchen each year.

It takes between $60,000 to $65,000 a year to keep the Soup Kitchen in operation.  About 20 percent of the lunches it serves comes from donations of food from individuals, food drives, companies and organizations in the community. About 5 percent is Federal Emergency Management Agency commodities distributed by the Eastern Idaho Community Action Partnership. The rest, approximately $45,000, is purchased with the cash contributions from individuals, churches, businesses and service organizations.

The Soup Kitchen facility is provided by the Community Outreach Center at no cost, but it takes money to buy cleaning, equipment, maintenance services, phones and insurance.

“Some of our local businesses have gone above and beyond to help out,” said Kaaren Parsons, who coordinates the ministry for St. Luke’s Episcopal Chuch (St. Mark’s and St. John’s merged to form St. Luke’s in 2001). Parsons wished to extend special recognition to Doug’s Meats, Rush’s Kitchen Supply, Brady’s, Smith’s, Mathew’s Plumbing, Sunrise Cleaning and Mike Beckstead.

Local personality laid low by meningitis, needs help

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The screenshot from GoFundMe.com.

I want to call your attention to something I saw on Facebook last night about Dusty Johns, aka Dusty Bee, a well known person in the community who has been laid low quite unexpectedly and could use your help.

Dusty has raised thousands of dollars to fight cancer, and even rode a ferris wheel for 12 straight hours to raise money for the domestic violence intervention shelter. He is an outgoing and ebullient character -- or at least he was.

In mid-May, he started leaking spinal fluid from his sinuses and was admitted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. From there they transported him to University of Utah, where went into the ICU, then had a five-hour operation. Despite the doctors' best efforts, he developed spinal meningitis and is still in the hospital, with no clear answer as to when he will be able to return.

Dusty has two little boys that depend on him. He is the marketing director for Tobin Cleaning and Restoration, and for Comfort Care Dental. I am assuming he has health insurance, but as anyone who has had experience with a serious illness or injury knows, that only does so much. Meeting the deductible and out-of-pocket caps can be a huge financial strain, and then there are all the things that insurance doesn’t even cover.

I’m posting the GoFundMe link here -- Dusty Bee's Medical Fund -- in hopes that you might be able to help. As I’m looking at the page right now the total is $1,315. He's going to need a lot more.

Free movie night tonight at Tautphaus

Movies in the Park starts tonight.

Summer is still a few weeks away, but now that Memorial Day is over we’re starting to see the signs: First, Alive After 5 started on Wednesday. Tonight, Idaho Falls Parks & Recreation is launching its Movies in the Park with Disney’s "Planes – Fire & Rescue" starting at Tautphaus Park at dusk. Bring your camp chairs, blankets, flashlights and snacks.

Bill’s Bike & Run will be giving a free bike away at every movie. They will also run a complimentary bike valet for anyone riding their bikes to the event.

From now until September, Movies in the Park will be held the last Friday of the month at various Idaho Falls parks. Click HERE to see a complete schedule and more information. Movies in the Park is sponsored by Teton Toyota, Bill’s Bike & Run, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Westmark Credit Union and Riverbend Communications.

Tomorrow morning the 2015 Adventure Ride and Scavenger Hunt will start at 10 at the Snake River Landing pier. Riders will be challenged to ride to eight different locations throughout downtown Idaho Falls, Snake River Landing and along the Greenbelt. The challenge will be to visit all locations within a two-hour time period. At each location, participants will receive a raffle ticket. For those finishing the challenge by noon, the raffle tickets can be entered into a prize drawing for prizes, including three bikes. The event is sponsored by Dave’s Bike Shop, Idaho Mountain Trading, BMPO (Bonneville Metropolitan Planning Organization), Bill’s Bike & Run and Idaho Falls Parks & Recreation.

ULTA Beauty plans grand opening this weekend

ULTA Beauty will open the doors of its new Ammon store Friday morning at 10. In celebration of its grand opening, the first 100 guests on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will receive a “beauty treat” valued $5 to $100 and one free skin or hair service at The Salon, ULTA Beauty’s full-service salon. Beauty experts will be on hand all weekend to offer free makeovers and consultations.

The new 10,344-square foot store location at Ammon Town Center will feature 20,000 beauty products across 500 brands, as well as a full-service salon.

ULTA Beauty is the largest beauty retailer in the United States, with 774 retail stores across 47 states. The company says its aim is to provide one-stop shopping for prestige, mass and salon products and salon services. Online and in retail outlets, the Illinois-based chain sells cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products and salon styling tools.


Its store format includes a 950-square-foot salon area with eight to ten stations. The whole salon has a concierge desk, skin treatment room, and semi-private shampoo and hair color processing areas. ULTA Beauty also has Benefit Brow Bars in select stores nationwide, offering such services as brow arching, brow tinting, facial waxing and eyelash application.


The company was founded in 1990 by Richard E. George, former president of Osco Drug, Inc. The Ammon store is the second in Idaho.

Work starts on 15-unit retail center at Sandcreek Commons

The crew at work Monday on the new strip mall at Sandcreek Commons.

Work started Friday on the footings and foundation of a 15-unit shopping center at Sandcreek Commons, east of the D.L. Evans Bank and north of where Hobby Lobby and Broulim's are being built. For the moment, the project goes by the prosaic name of Retail A. Altogether, it will have 18,639 square feet of retail space, according to the Plans at the city of Ammon Building Department. No announcements have been made about possible tenants, but given the level of interest and activity at the Ball Ventures-Woodbury Corp. it would be extremely surprising if there weren't at least a few tenants before the end of the year.

The plans at the Ammon Building Department office.