Dozens celebrated new additions to the Central California Food Bank on Tuesday.
Officials announced the facility’s new Santé Volunteer Center to allow its workforce to work more safely and efficiently.
“Right now, we are working in a working warehouse,” said volunteer and workforce manager Linda Stolling. “We have to use space that they would prefer to use for storing food.”
But now, the food bank is working to clarify its mission, breaking ground in the space where volunteers will pack and train, including a USDA-approved Protein Repack Room.
Officials say they’ll be able to balance the fruits and vegetables they’re used to giving out with animal proteins.
Something they haven’t been able to save much of due to a lack of resources.
“It’s very hard for us to accept and distribute 30 pounds of whole-friar chickens to our neighbors,” says Central California Food Bank Co-CEO Kym Dildine, “What this will allow us to do is to accept those donations, and then downsize it in bulk into household sizes and provide animal proteins to our neighbors.”
The expansion is made possible by a $1 million check from the George & Melodie Rogers Foundation.
The Rogers’ nephew, Casey Rogers, told dozens of volunteers he felt they needed to help after watching their neighbors suffer during the recent government shutdown, “These times are more critical than ever. And so, the need here is so great.”
Food bank officials agreed, saying it’s only an added pressure to the hunger they’ve seen in the central valley for years…
“It’s tragic that in a community that grows the food for the nation and the world, that one in four adults, and one in three children right here in Central California struggle with hunger on a daily basis,” says Dildine.
But even with donors, officials said they’re short $2 million and are now turning to the community it serves.
Even if you can’t donate, they’re asking for more volunteers to sign up on their website here.