Flathead Food Bank to close thrift store

The Flathead Food Bank is closing its Second Helpings thrift store at the Gateway Community Center in Kalispell on Aug. 31 after a financial review showed the secondhand store has not been profitable and, in fact, has been subsidized by the food bank.

Second Helpings was started more than five years ago in a roughly 10,000-square-foot space next to the food bank with the goal of bringing in extra money to help the food bank purchase supplemental food.

“It was never profitable for us,” said Jamie Quinn, who was hired as the food bank’s director in late May. “After a careful review, the board and I came to the decision, with what our profit and loss were,” to close the thrift store.

“The decision was hard to come to, but the Flathead Food Bank has decided to get back to our core mission of eliminating hunger,” Quinn said. “As the Flathead’s trusted agency on feeding those in need, we want to do what is best for those we serve.”

About 15 part- and full-time employees of Second Helpings will be laid off. Quinn said the food bank has reached out to the Kalispell Job Service and LC Staffing, and will be providing the workers with assistance and resources to move forward.

“We know this is a difficult transition,” Quinn said. “The board and I didn’t make the decision lightly … When I re-evaluated from the past what was being put to each side, I did a comprehensive background, and we (the food bank) seemingly were subsidizing the thrift store.”

Flathead Food Bank leases the Second Helpings space from United Way, the fiscal agent and project facilitator for the Gateway Community Center, and plans to terminate the lease the end of September.

All store inventory will be 50 percent off starting Thursday, Aug. 16, until the store closes Aug. 31. Patrons should check Second Helpings Thrift Store’s Facebook page for updates on merchandise and hours.

Quinn said there are a dozen other thrift stores in Kalispell, and 22 valleywide.

“We’re not really filling a niche,” she said. “We might actually be hurting the other stores.”

After the closure, any remaining inventory and store equipment will either be donated or sold to other secondhand stores, Quinn said.

Quinn, who moved to the Flathead Valley from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, last year, started at the food bank as development director and was interim director for about a month before being hired as director. She replaced director Lori Botkins. Quinn previously was executive director of Columbia Life Network, a nonprofit social services agency in Pennsylvania, for five years.

“We want our donors and volunteers to know that when they’re giving to us they are valued, and that we’re putting [their contributions] into the community to feed people,” she said.

Features Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.