Iverson serves up successful pantry
BY TYSONS MEDSTAD
Who’s the guy in the crazy outfit with a big smile on his face?
It’s pantry’s coordinator Ray Iverson, and he’s run the food pantry in Max since its inception.
Iverson was working for the Great Plains Mobile Food Bank that used to stop in Garrison for three years when he was asked if he’d thought he could start another food pantry. He brought the idea up to Pastor Erin Gullickson. She gave them the space in her church to get started.
Our Savior’s Lord’s Pantry opened in 2015 and filled a critical need in the Max community.
As it grew, it moved to the Max Civic Center in 2018.
“It just escalated to here. This used to be the youth center but hadn’t been used in three years, so we asked, and here we are,” Iverson said.
Back in 2018, Great Plains Food Bank named Our Savior’s Lord’s Pantry in Max the Agency of the Year. This is the highest honor given to the Great Plains Food Bank’s network of more than 300 partner agencies and feeding sites across North Dakota and western Minnesota.
That’s quite a fete for a pantry that had only been open for three years.
Iverson credits the success to community members willing to volunteer.
He said, “I have a pretty good nucleus (of volunteers) right now that work for me. Sometimes they basically just come to me.”
