County food bank one of first to receive produce from $1.2B program
Deliveries to begin today; program to aid more than 38K people
STOCKTON — The Emergency Food Bank of Stockton/San Joaquin County will receive hundreds of boxes of produce from the $1.2 Billion United States Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program at its Stockton location Friday.
The first delivery will be welcomed by state and local dignitaries at 9:30 a.m. at 7 W. Scotts Ave., and will mark that the food bank is one of the first in California to benefit from the food box program.
“We welcome the opportunity to now be able to offer 38,500 people per month a fresh quality produce box,” food bank chief executive officer Leonard Hansen said in a media statement Thursday.
The USDA worked with agricultural industry leaders to develop a solution that would not only help get food to the unemployed and those struggling with food insecurity during this time, but also support farmers and the entire food industry, which major changes in food production since shut downs related to the COVID-19 pandemic began in March.
“We are blessed to be a part of this program that will benefit so many during these challenging times for everyone,” AgLink spokeswoman Jana Naim said in the same media statement.
“We welcome the opportunity to now be able to offer 38,500 people per month a fresh quality produce box.”
“The way that USDA put this program together to use distributors as the leads was genius,” she added “It really will provide a ripple effect boost to the local economy with benefits to so many in the food supply chain while meeting the needs of the local food insecure population.”
Ag Link is a local produce aggregator that has been a leader in farm to school product distribution since 2012.
Partnering with Fresh Innovations
of Stockton and Taylor Farms of Salinas, the company will provide nearly 4,000 boxes a day to consumers through local non-profit outlets across the Central Valley.
Produce in the boxes being delivered to the Emergency Food Bank on Friday include tomatoes from Lipman Family Farms in Stockton; onions and potatoes from Onions, Etc. in Stockton; stone fruit from Sierra Sun in Sanger; and sweet potatoes from Doreva Produce in Livingston.
The Emergency Food Bank is one of Ag Link’s outlets that has been overwhelmed with demand the past few months from consumers seeking assistance, and like many food banks, it is not getting enough supplies donated due to all of the businesses and industries that are shut down.
To receive food assistance, volunteer or donate, please contact the Emergency Food Bank 209-464-7369 or visit www.StocktonFoodBank.org.
Emergency Food Bank creates healthy recipe videos
In addition to providing healthy food and receiving produce boxes from the USDA and AgLink, the Emergency Food Bank will begin streaming online nutrition videos every Friday to assist families, seniors, veterans and single parent households with new recipes at www.stocktonfoodbank.org.
To view the videos, click the What We Do tab, or visit the food bank’s channel on YouTube. The videos will remain online for the community to access at any time.