Season of Sharing comes to an end with a grand total of $40,211
FORT BRAGG, CA » Although it began a little late, the 2021 Season of Sharing brought an unexpected gift to the Fort Bragg Food Bank— a total in donations beyond what they had projected. The news of $40,211.51 raised led to the staff’s spontaneous excitement. Due to COVID and job loss, times have been difficult for two consecutive winters along the coast. Some shop owners have closed their businesses for good, and tourist dollars for the city have dwindled. However, it isn’t just the successful donation drive that the Food Bank celebrates. The bighearted volunteers who give hours of their time to the Food Bank are treasured assets.
People are the working heart of the Food Bank. Serving over two thousand families in need during the year requires an organized system. Many workers move pallets of food from a delivery truck and onto the delivery of a week’s worth of groceries to a senior shutin. Multiple steps must occur for the result to reach a client. A local, non-profit organization operates bare-bones, partly to ensure that incoming funds go directly to those they serve and partly because the cost of paid employees would be astronomical.
The Fort Bragg Food Bank’s great fortune is the cohort of dedicated volunteers they depend upon to make the magic happen. One of the first comments anyone associated with the non-profit will offer is that the camaraderie of the staff and volunteers is exceptional. They vow there is no better place to work, and the satisfaction of helping others is a welcome salary. The volunteers come from varied backgrounds and lives. A wide range in age, economic status, education, life, and work experience creates a kaleidoscope of generous people, each with something unique to bring to the care of the needy.
Volunteer Susan Colman has been part of the Food Bank for two and a half years. Once a Bay Area resident who volunteered at Laguna Honda Hospital in San
Francisco, Colman finds herself at home in the volunteer arena. Her compassion for those in need flows through every sentence she speaks when describing her job. She fondly recalls her interaction with clients before COVID ended on-site shopping at the warehouse. Now her focus is homeless. Every Tuesday and Thursday, she prepares 35 sandwich bags complete with yogurt, fruit, and often a pop-top can of soup.
She and Andi Whitlow, who oversees the Farm Stand, take the Food Bank van along a designated route to pass out the meals to the homeless. “They’re so appreciative,” Colman said. “Many of them are already eating before we drive away.” She pointed to a small mattress nearby that she had brought from home to give to a homeless client living in his van. “At night, when I’m at home, and it’s raining, I think about them and where they might be. Inequality Is systemic,” she added. “It’s not anyone person’s fault that they came across bad times. They can’t get unburied without help. Keeping them down is not helping society.”
Andi Whitlow is also dedicated to seeing the lunch program succeed. Rain is a hindrance on sandwich bag days, but Whitlow remains undaunted. “If we have any bags left, we bring them back to the Farm Stand. People even ask for them now,” Whitlow said. A former native of northern England, Whitlow defines himself as an advocate of the homeless community. He left home at age seventeen and arrived in the United States when he was twenty-one and says that, “I’ve been all over the world,” adding that “for the four years previous to COVID, I crossed the continent five times.”
His lifestyle came to a halt in 2020, when he found himself living in his car near the Food Bank. “Since COVID hit,” he recalled, “I have hardly gone out of the town. I’ve got no interest in going anywhere.” Noticing that the Food Bank suddenly had few volunteers coming in, he volunteered his time. With a background in construction, he took on the job of remodeling the warehouse across the street. Newly leased by the Food Bank, the building needed painting, shelving, benches, and an organized layout to convert it into the Farm Stand. “It just came naturally to me,” Whitlow said.
Now Whitlow is a member of the Food Bank’s staff of twelve and oversees all aspects of the Farm Stand and the sandwich program. He confirmed that he handled the Farm Stand on his own for a while as a volunteer, but “the Farm Stand needed a staff member, and I was the obvious choice.” He dismissed any description of himself as the one who developed the idea of feeding the homeless. “It’s great helping the homeless community. I helped set up the snack program, but all I did was help grow it,” he said. “I was good at finding where these people hid, as I once did myself,” he commented. “I’m able to see what kind of stuff they would want or need,” he said. He offered apples as an example of a poor choice for the sandwich bags. He pointed out that “you don’t know what it’s like until you don’t have teeth.”
Whitlow and Colman are committed to the Food Bank for the long term. Although every Season of Sharing brings welcome donation dollars to the Food Bank at the end of the year, the Fort Bragg Food Bank welcomes donations all year round. This non-profit is dedicated to the basic human need for food, critical life support whether someone is unhoused, recently out of a job, crushed by medical bills, or living in reasonable comfort.
Donors’list
The Fort Bragg AdvocateNews and the Mendocino Beacon warmly thank the new donors from the last week of the drive who contributed $2,057.13: In honor of Ruby Bell Sherpa; in honor of Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Pharmacy Department; in memory of Al Barrager; in memory of Jane C. O’Reilly; in honor of Larry and Peggy Cote; Lorna Davis; Sharon Blake; in memory of Tony Phillips; and Mitchell A. Sprague. Donations to the Fort Bragg Food Bank are welcome any time of the year. Please contact them to give what you can of money, time, or food items: The Fort Bragg Food Bank at 910 North Franklin Street, PO Box 70, Fort Bragg, CA 95437 or 707-964-9404 or FortBraggFoodBank.org.