FOOD BANK TO RECEIVE $429K FOR EXPANSION
OROVILLE >> The Butte Community Action Agency is set to receive $428,783 to go toward opening its own local food bank that will operate from the warehouse where food is stored for other local pantries.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the county was provided with roughly $1 million through the Community Development Block Grant that was initially meant for Butte County Public Health to provide testing and vaccinations.
Deputy Administrative Officer Katie Simmons said Public Health no longer is in need of the funding remaining and requested that the board use the leftover money for the South County Food Pantry Project.
“Rather than returning the remaining $428,783 left in the grant to the state, the county recommends funding a new program called the South County Food Pantry Project administered by the Community Action Agency,” Simmons said. “The funds will be used to reconfigure approximately 1,500 square feet of Community Action Agency’s existing food bank facility in the city of Oroville into a publicly accessed pantry.”
The Butte County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the use of the leftover funding for the project.
Up until this project, the Community Action Agency’s food bank has acted as a warehouse that stores food for other food banks run by local organizations, churches and other groups to provide food to those in need throughout the county.
The agency’s warehouse, and soon-to-be public pantry, is located at 2640 Fifth Ave. in Oroville. Inside the building are two large rooms, each containing a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, filled to the brim with canned food, bags of dried food, produce and frozen items organized in a way that lets community members who run their own food banks pick out what they need.
Agency Outreach Coordinator Tim Miller said the organization handles five counties in total.
“We have roughly 75 partners that we supply food to and they supply food from here,” Miller said. “So we are basically the warehouse for food pantries and food distribution.”
Once the food bank is opened, it will be one additional bank for residents to utilize when food is scarce.
“We are going to build a food pantry here to help the public, to have the public be able to come in and actually be able to shop here,” Miller said. “Because right now the public doesn’t come here except for in emergency situations.”
Much of the food is provided through donations from individuals as well as businesses while the rest is obtained using grant funding from the state and federal levels. Miller said on average, the network associated with the warehouse provides just short of 10,000 people a month.
Toward the back of one of the food storage rooms sat about eight barrels that are each distributed to grocery stores. Those shopping at these stores can purchase
items and leave them in the barrels to be picked up and transported back to the warehouse. Miller said recently the agency kept one at Grocery Outlet and was able to secure thousands of pounds of food from that one alone.
Miller added that nothing is sent to the landfill. Food that outlives its expiration date goes to a local pig farm instead.
While holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving often see an uptick in food pantry activity, Miller said some of the busiest times are throughout the summer when kids are no longer in school and lunches need to be provided at home. He added that the banks have been particularly busy lately.
“Especially right now with us just getting through COVID and with the state of the economy, people are really hurting,” Miller said. “We’re seeing our numbers go way up. We have a drivethru distribution center somewhere in the county every Friday and we’ve seen our numbers almost double in those distributions over the past few months.”