The COVID-19 Response Fund awarded a $50,000 grant to the Placer Food Bank to assist with improvements to, and scaling of, infrastructure for managing food distribution to 58 partner agencies throughout the region. The grant also supported purchase of food for “free farmers market” distribution events in Lincoln, Rocklin and Sheridan.
Program Manager Mary Schellenberger prepped 30 new volunteers for an event on April 9 at Johnson Springview Park in Rocklin. It was part of ramping up in anticipation of the increased need.
“We have 400 bags of food,” said Mary. “We counted 93 cars in line before we started at 7 a.m. this morning and we’ve had a steady stream ever since.”
Prior to the shutdown, Placer Food Bank would typically see 25 cars at mobile events, but on this day over 475 total individuals and families were served.
The people served by Placer Food Bank are truly food insecure. They face the choice of purchasing food over other bills like prescription drugs or rent. Mary says many are seniors, but these days the pool of people has broadened significantly.
Mary remarked, “Today it’s a whole different group of people here and it’s all due to COVID-19. People have lost their jobs and they’re trying to figure out how best to use the limited funds they have.”
We’re going to run out of food today, but we have a whole other truck load coming. That’s possible because of funding from Placer Community Foundation and being able to purchase more food. – Mary Schellenberger, program manager, Placer Food Bank
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