Jul. 4--Tere Liberty, Meridian Food Bank volunteer, has empathy for people in hard times.

She moved west after Hurricane Katrina wrecked her house in New Orleans.

"What people are in now is an economic hurricane," Liberty said, as she separated canned goods in the back room at the food bank.

"In some ways, a storm is easier, because it happens, and it's over," she said. "Now, people are getting kicked in sections. They lose their job one month, lose their house the next."

Demand for food has jumped this year in Meridian and across Idaho as the economy has worsened.

The Meridian Food Bankserved 538 new patrons in 2007 and 810 in 2008. Only six months into 2009, the food bank already has served 511 first-time visitors.

Other Treasure Valley agencies are seeing similar increases. The Boise Rescue Mission recently announced it's seeing a record number of people asking for food aid.

The picture is the same on the state level. More than 151,000 people qualified for food assistance in May, compared to nearly 100,000 at the same time last year, said Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials.

A NEW HOME

The Meridian Food Bank is only blocks from Meridian City Hall.

Patrons line up early on the days it's open. Some drive, parking pickup trucks with a dog riding shotgun. Some come on foot, pulling children's wagons across Meridian Road.

The food bank occupies a compound of small buildings, including a former dairy equipment workshop, owned by the Ada County Highway District.

Dan Clark, food bank chairman and administrator of the Valley Shepherd Church of the Nazarene, said the group began serving patrons at the new building in mid-February and hosted an open house in June to show off a volunteer-powered remodel.

The food bank pays rent of $1 a year to ACHD and will have a home there until at least 2013, ACHD spokeswoman Robbie Johnson said.

Eventually, ACHD plans to build a crossover between Main Street and Meridian Road where the food bank stands.

For now, renting to the food bank benefits the community and is a good use of property that would otherwise be hard to rent because of the finite time frame, Johnson said.

INVISIBLE PEOPLE

Clark saw the need for a food bank a decade ago after a homeless acquaintance took him on an eye-opening tour of Meridian.

"There were 85 homeless people, and that was 10 years ago," Clark said. "I had had no idea. These people had been invisible."

Clark believes that blindness continues.

"People look at Meridian and don't see homeless people. They see this nice bedroom community.