{"id":59249,"date":"2025-11-18T22:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59249\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:22:08","slug":"kern-county-holiday-food-drive-aims-to-support-community-amid-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/59249\/","title":{"rendered":"Kern County holiday food drive aims to support community amid government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Houchin Community Blood Bank has partnered with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capk.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Community Action Partnership of Kern (CAPK)<\/a> to launch a holiday food drive, aiming to support those in need amid the ongoing government shutdown. Anna Kazaryan, director of donor relations at Houchin, emphasized the importance of the initiative, saying, &#8220;Just everything that was happening with the government shutdown, we just kind of felt the need.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><p>KBAK<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The drive, which will run until the end of the year, encourages the community to donate non-perishable items at any of Houchin&#8217;s three Bakersfield locations. &#8220;We really want to just kind of focus on non-perishable because this is going to extend until the end of the year,&#8221; Kazaryan said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to food donations, Houchin is offering incentives for blood donors. Those who donate blood and bring a food item will receive a cozy blanket and a voucher for a free large pizza from Tony&#8217;s Pizza. Kazaryan highlighted the dual benefit of donating blood and food, stating, &#8220;You can actually help two of our nonprofit here in the community in one shot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Houchin blankets that guests can received after they donate blood. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX{ }{p}{\/p}{p}{\/p}\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fac9ca0f-b866-4b5d-834e-020c9186d782-Image20251118T135129.248.jpg\"\/>Houchin blankets that guests can received after they donate blood. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX{ }<\/p>\n<p>The need for blood donations is particularly high during the holiday season due to increased accidents. Kazaryan also noted that O blood types are especially needed as they are universal donors used in emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on donation locations and the food drive, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/hcbb.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Houchin&#8217;s website <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houchin Community Blood Bank has partnered with Community Action Partnership of Kern (CAPK) to launch a holiday food&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-59249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}