Food for People seeks support amid uncertainty
Mike McGuire holding annual food drive Dec. 10
Increasing demand and dwindling donations have affected food banks across the United States. One of the biggest issues moving forward is the uncertainty of the future.
“This past year there has been additional funding at the state and federal level for emergency food purchases that is due to run out at the end of December,” said Anne Holcomb, Food for People executive director. “Through the USDA, there has been additional funds made available through the Trade Mitigation Program and more recently CARES Act relief funds, all of that has made it possible for food banks around the state to purchase additional food through USDA. That all comes to an end at the end of December and none of us know what’s going to happen from there.”
According to the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, households receiving CalFresh benefits steadily increased from just over 22,000 in March to 24,753 in May. In June, numbers began to steadily decrease and eventually dropped to 21,787 in October. As COVID-19 continues to surge across the country, access to affordable food is more important than ever, Holcomb said.
“I have seen footage of cars and trucks lined up for miles and miles just in order to access food,” she said. “It’s one of the basic things we all need food in order to survive. I think foodbanks have always been a part of the safety net. If you have extremely limited funds, you can use that to pay the rent or keep the lights on, keep your vehicle on the road, and if we can help alleviate that by helping provide people with the food they need to get by, that plays a pretty critical role in folks’ survival.”
In March, a sewage leak at Food for People’s headquarters at Summer and 14th streets forced the food bank to close temporarily and throw out thousands of dollars in food. Holcomb said the organization has since struggled with limited storage capacity.
“Which is why we’re focusing on virtual drives and asking people to donate financially so we can purchase food as we need it. This helps us maximize our space and get the items we most need,” Holcomb said. “I would also point out that we have double to triple the purchasing power of the average consumer, so we can stretch those dollars a lot further.”
For the past five years, North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire has partnered with Food for People and local high schools for a holiday food drive in December. This year’s donation drive will take place Dec. 10 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Safeway at 2555 Harris Street in Eureka.
“Sen. McGuire has always played an integral role and been our most enthusiastic supporter,” Holcomb laughed. “He puts a ton of energy in engaging the high school students and making sure they understand the importance of service to your community. He holds Zoom check-ins with the students in the weeks leading up to the food drive and encourages them to be creative and share ideas about how they’re going to increase their donations. It’s really inspiring to see the level of engagement with the students.”
In the past, the donation drive has been structured as a competition between students at Eureka, Ferndale, Fortuna, Arcata, McKinleyville and St. Bernard’s high schools with one school taking home the coveted Golden Can award along with funds for a pizza party and school dance. This year, Holcomb said the students decided they didn’t want to compete.
“They said they didn’t want to compete against each other and it was just important to come together and support the community,” she said. “They’re doing some competition internally between classes at each school, but they agreed that whatever funding was available to support the winner would be split up evenly amongst the six schools.”
McGuire’s press office did not respond to a request to comment on the drive before the publishing deadline, although the senator was tweeting over the weekend and on Monday about supporting Food for People.
“We wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t urgent,” the senator tweeted. “@FoodforPeople, Humboldt’s Food Bank, is seeing record demand and donations are down. Thousands are going #hungry.”
Anyone who would like to donate nonperishables to food drive is asked to place the items in the trunk of your vehicle. Financial donations can be made at foodforpeople.org.