Feeding the Needy in Our Community
Our client base is 25% seniors, 15% veterans, 15% homeless, of which the majority are LGBTQ+ individuals, and 45% single people or families between 19 and 59 years old.
Since COVID-19, we are serving 425–500 families per week. We cannot have hundreds of people in our building and there is no way to social distance in our space, so we have moved to pre-packed boxes of food, including canned and dry goods, bread, fruit, vegetables, desserts and meats, and we are now serving people in a drive-up pantry. Those without transportation can walk up and get food. Hot lunches are no longer being served. Just recently we started putting clothing on rolling racks and taking them outside from 11:30–12:30 on Wednesday and Thursday of each week.
Our dining room is now a staging area for 150–200 boxes per day that are packed by our volunteers. It is backbreaking work, since you have to move cases and cases of food from one end of the building to another and each box has to be packaged with the dry goods. The following morning, the boxes have to be moved to carts so we can add in the perishable items and then they have to be moved out to the hallway and porch for distribution in the afternoon.
Every box or bag of food has to be loaded into the trunk of the car for each family or handed to those who walk up. An average box of food is approximately 50 pounds. As our Executive Director, the Rev. Dr. Lisa Heilig, says, it is like playing food Tetris for eight hours a day.
We are a volunteer-based organization with just three paid employees, two of whom are part-time. Our Executive Director is our only full-time employee. Our Volunteer Coordinator and our Kitchen Coordinator are both part-time. We have two contract people who come in and clean the building in the evening to make sure the building is clean and ready for the next day. The remainder of our staff are all volunteers, including me and our entire board of directors.
Our clients were worried we were going to close completely. Many pantries did exactly that, because most of them were run by volunteers over the age of 65, the primary at-risk group for coronavirus infection.
We were in the same boat: 70% of our volunteers are at-risk either due to health issues or because of their age.
Based on the COVID-19 rules, food banks are considered essential, so we were able to stay open, but we could have no more than 10 people in the building at a time and we had to keep the public out of the building, wear masks, wear gloves, sanitize everything and stay six feet apart at all times. Imagine 10 people doing the work that 25–30 used to do and doubling the volume. Because a national emergency was declared, we were able to have the National Guard assist us, so since March 20 we have had two to four guardsmen assisting us. That has been a huge help.
We have been very fortunate to have many young people who are temporarily unemployed volunteer to pick up the slack for our seniors who have not been able to come in due to the risks.
We have been very fortunate to have many young people who are temporarily unemployed volunteer to pick up the slack for our seniors who have not been able to come in due to the risks. Additionally, the public has been amazing; with additional food donations and general financial donations, we have been able to fund the increase in volume.
While we have enjoyed so much support up to now from the community, I worry about long-term sustainability as our economy struggles to recover. As soon as the $600 per week unemployment runs out, I know we will see another uptick in volume.
What can you do to help THCA? Make a recurring cash donation of at least $100 per month for the next 18 plus months or a one-time $1800 donation via our website, www.tocohillsalliance.org. This will allow us to purchase from ACFB 10 times the amount of food we could buy at the store. In other words, $10 allows us to buy $100 worth of food from ACFB.
We are neighbors helping neighbors. Help us feed our struggling brothers and sisters.
Lynn Pasqualetti is the President/Chair of Toco Hills Community Alliance. lynn@tocohillsalliance.org www.tocohillsalliance.org