Food bank volunteers step up in unprecedented times
Volunteers prepare to unload pallets of food at Downey FoodHelp in 2015. Photo by Carol Kearns
Please let this letter serve as a big, humble THANK YOU for what you are doing to help serve people in our community during the COVID-19 pandemic! Your unwavering commitment helps FoodHelp volunteers face each week with confidence.
As you know, things are a bit chaotic everywhere, and the food bank was seeing 5-600% more neighbors in need than in 2019. Without you, 2020 would have been a disaster for the food bank and for thousands of families throughout our community.
Despite all the chaos around us, the generosity of donors and volunteers have successfully calmed neighbors who were in fear for their family’s survival.
People are still lining up to get food in December and the line is still wrapping down the street, but people are much calmer now than they were last spring, even with the current increase in Covid cases. Family upon family thanked us for food and some even became volunteers to help others.
My job for 2020 was to construct a food storage building for the food bank, but the coronavirus pandemic added another challenge – to provide enough food to feed up to 700 families (or 3,000 people) a week because people were unemployed and hungry. Fortunately, God provided the means by way of individual and corporate donations, government grants and many other sources.
Seeing all the food was definitely a “God Thing” because companies began calling, truckloads of food showed up, funds were given to buy staples (when we could find them), multiple food drives were run throughout the city, transportation equipment kept running or got fixed quickly, and online giving exploded as our little food bank was recognized on radio and social media. We had to buy a used forklift to quickly unload truckloads of food on pallets with a limited number of volunteers.
All our regular sources provided food and finances in record amounts, but also new and innovative sources opened up, like, social media, the U.S. Government Farmers to Families program and even a CARES grant. Food was so plentiful that it took over the church café building since people were not meeting there.
A FoodHelp volunteer fills a donation box in this 2015 photo by Carol Kearns.
We went from a few pallets of food each week to several dozen pallets of food. We have pallets of staples and were able to buy more as the holidays approached with two additional grants just in time to provide for Thanksgiving and Christmas provisions.
Three new food banks are now partnering with us in Huntington Park, South Gate and Lynwood to serve their cities as we mentor their leaders and share food regularly. Their involvement has reduced the number of neighbors coming to our Downey FoodHelp facility, which is a blessing, because feeding that many people takes so much time and we still fed over 58,000 people this year as of today.
I could take an entire page to acknowledge all the wonderful donors who successfully enabled FoodHelp volunteers to do what we do best – feed and care for people! If you are one of these wonderful and generous people, we say thank you from all the leaders at the food bank and from the church leaders as well. Collaborating with people like you, including individuals, grocery stores, food distributors, businesses, government entities, schools, other non profits, and other churches created success to serve this community of people who come from 72 cities and 129 zip codes around the Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties.
We are all amazed at how FoodHelp survived this year and how many people were helped in the process.
Oh, and back to the food storage building project…. the concrete foundation was poured Nov. 30, followed by the assembling of a metal building. As of this writing, the windows and doors are in and the contractors are working on the roof and sidewalls. By Christmas, we should have the shell of our first food storage building – all paid with your generous donations.
All-in-all, in spite of the Coronavirus and the loss of jobs, people are getting back to smiling again and volunteers are managing the food bank in masterful ways. We couldn’t do what we are doing without you doing what you are doing – remember that the crisis isn’t over yet, 2021 will be another challenging year.
We wish all of you, your friends, and your families a most wonderful holiday season!
With sincere gratitude,
Jim Wilkinson
Board Member
562-862-2438 office