Volunteers fight food insecurity

COEUR d'ALENE — Evie Fatz’s day job is running her healthy food business, Cōpow, but she couldn’t help but become mobilized to find a way to fight food scarcity when she moved to North Idaho from Nevada. 

Inspired by her connection to The Just One Project in Nevada, Fatz said when she opened Cōpow, she wanted to keep finding ways to pay it forward and feed more of the community.   

“There shouldn’t be anyone sitting at home with nothing to eat. It should be a dignified experience and not just leftovers out of someone else’s pantry,” Fatz said. 

Since the Post Falls storefront opened, she’s begun working with CASA to reach foster families and the Area Office on Aging to get meals into the hands of people who need them.  

A separate arm of the business is the Brighter Life Foundation, which began a “you eat, they eat" program getting full meals to seniors, kids and individuals in addiction recovery homes in the area.  

Since opening May 31, Cōpow has been able to channel 6,547 meals to the foundation to go into the community. 

Volunteers meet on Fridays at the storefront to assemble healthy meals for the community. 

Lindsey Brahm was one of a half dozen volunteers to assemble about 300 meals Friday. 

As a Lewis Clark State College nursing student, Brahm jumped at the chance to combine a college requirement with a cause she has a passion for. 

“I chose Brighter Life because there’s a lot of food insecurity here. It was the perfect place to get my hours for school and to help out,” Brahm said. 

    Angela Poole and Shelby Bloxam put together meals at Cōpow while volunteering through the Brighter Life Foundation. The foundation is looking for community partners to get more meals out to people in need of food in North Idaho.
  

    Desi Freeman, director of operations at Cōpow takes Brighter Life Foundation volunteers Shelby Bloxam and Lindsey Brahm through the meal assembly process.