BELFIELD, N.D. — The Belfield-Medora Food Pantry has been serving the people of Belfield and other communities for 40 years. Its director and coordinator, Doris Urban, is ready to step down from her leadership role.
Urban has been involved with the Belfield-based food pantry when it first opened in October of 1986. Under her leadership, the food pantry serves Belfield, Medora, Fryburg and several other local communities. The food pantry is able to source its food from its partnership with Great Plains Food Bank while also receiving donations from businesses such as Walmart and Cash Wise Foods. Although Urban is looking to step away from coordinating the food pantry, she has hopes that it will continue under new leadership.
“It’s a vital part of our community,” she said. “We get so much donations and help from everyone—that’s why we’re able to continue as we are.”
According to Urban, she and members of the Belfield Lutheran Church started the food pantry during a time when people were losing their jobs in the oil industry and didn’t have enough money to pay for groceries. Working out of the church, the food pantry became an important source for meals in the community.
Doris Urban and Sharlene Schuhrke unpack a box of fruits and vegetables donated to the Belfield-Medora Food Pantry.
Dickinson Press File Photo
“Everyone was scrambling, trying to feed their families, and this is how we started accumulating food and donations,” Urban said. “When people saw the organization and that we had the support of all of our churches, it just kind of grew.”
According to Treasurer Carmen Waldo, the food pantry started off collecting food at the Lutheran church and distributing it at the Belfield Theater and Performance Center before eventually moving into the church’s old parsonage building.
Not only did the food pantry’s location change over time but so did the meals it provided. Urban said that if the food pantry when first starting out could provide a can of vegetables for each family in need, the organizers thought they were really lucky to be able to do that. Now that the food pantry orders its supply from Great Plains Food Bank, it can provide a family with about six cans and an increased variety of food.
The food pantry opens every Thursday so that anyone in need can come and look through the supply that it collected that week. On the third Thursday of each month, families can fill out a form in order to pick up a box of food assembled by the food pantry. For Urban, coordinating the food pantry’s services has been an important part of her life over the past 40 years.
“I really feel blessed,” Urban said. “It has enriched me beyond words.”
“I’m very proud of how we have grown and are able to fulfill more needs than were met before,” she added.
Waldo, who has been a board member of the food pantry for three years, emphasized the significance of Urban’s role in making the food pantry function. While the food pantry has seen volunteers come and go over the years, Urban and her husband, Elroy, have been a consistent part of it. According to Waldo, Urban places the orders with Great Plains Food Bank and gets her family involved when there is a shortage of volunteers. Urban even balances her responsibilities at the food pantry with being a paraprofessional for Belfield Public School.
“She is the one who has never once in 40 years not been available,” Waldo said. “She’s always been there and it was because of her compassion and belief that this could work that the food pantry even exists.”
Consistency is also an aspect of the food pantry that Waldo admires.
“Consistency is really important in a community like Belfield where people might not have the means to otherwise get what they need,” she said.
While Urban has many memories from the decades of coordinating the food pantry, there is one that sticks out to her. She remembers there was once a family who came with five children and they had never been to a food pantry before. After the team at the food pantry filled a box of food for the family, the mother started to cry. Urban recalls telling her not to cry and that the food was a gift from God. She told the mother that it was the job of people at the food pantry to help feed her children.
“How touched she was made an impact on me—it meant that much to her,” Urban said. “If I can make a little bit of an impact on a family that way, that’s what life is about.”
Although Urban is looking to step away from her leadership position, she has no intention of ending her involvement with the food pantry.
“I’ll be around if someone needs help or anything,” she said. “I’ll always be available until I am done with this Earth.”
Previously a freelance reporter based in Washington, D.C., Dorvall Bedford is from northern Maryland and studied journalism at the University of Maryland. He joined The Dickinson Press in March 2026.
Dorvall’s prior reporting involved covering arts and entertainment in and around Washington, including local music, photography and art exhibitions. He likes to cover events and stories not only because they’re interesting but also to show that oftentimes the least discussed topics can be some of the most important. At The Dickinson Press, he hopes to serve his community by continuing to find the stories that aren’t being told.
Even outside of work, you can always find Dorvall documenting the world around him with a camera in his hands.
Readers can reach Dorvall at (701) 456-1213 or dbedford@thedickinsonpress.com.
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