Food Bank dealing with new obstacles in face of COVID-19
IMPERIAL — The Imperial Valley Food Bank, which over the past 30 days has helped around 24,000 food-insecure individuals receive a modicum of sustenance, is operating with a skeleton crew.
The non-profit organization typically relies a substantial amount of volunteer assistance to fulfill its mission of helping keep hunger at bay, usually having about 60 to 100 helpers per month, per Executive Director Sara Griffen, but in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 that number has been slashed to zero. Since Sunday every aspect of the Food Bank’s extensive operations have been handled by 15 core staff members.
“Many staff have been taken away from what they normally do and put on critical functions,” such as packaging and distribution, Griffen said.
A substantial number of the foundation’s regular volunteers are elderly and at-risk, making it unfeasible for them to pitch in — “We don’t want to put people in situations where they could get sick,” Griffen said — but the loss these additional hands has certainly put a strain on operations.
Griffen said IVFB was considering allowing low-risk, healthy volunteers into the warehouse to help mitigate the labor shortage, but that such assistance would have to be vetted on a case-by-case basis.
This strain comes as demand for food assistance has risen substantially in the face COVID-19. Griffen said that, while she didn’t have hard data available as to how much demand had increased since the onset of the crisis, it was easy to tell that the numbers were up, since the amount of food that the bank distributes to its many area affiliates is calculated based upon the previous month’s needs and that those affiliates were reporting that what they have been receiving this month hasn’t been sufficient for all of those seeking aid.
These regularly scheduled distributions are a function of the IVFB’s status as the USDA’s Commodities storehouse for the county. The bank coordinates with the government to deliver earmarked goods to qualified individuals.
Delivery of food by state and federal agencies, as well as local farmers, have continued apace, despite
COVID-19, and Griffen said she expects to be able to meet additional and deepening demand for IVFB’s bread-andbutter services, but she did acknowledge that the bank’s donation-dependent emergency food supply — which is typically given out to persons who need help bridging the gap between regular monthly food deliveries — has been entirely depleted.
This stockpile is rarely robust, and even less so outside of the typical “giving seasons” said
IVFB communications officer Stephanie Campos. It didn’t have the legs to withstand the moment.
Though the lack of an emergency stockpile may sound mildly alarming, Director Griffen wanted it understood that this supply represents a small fraction of the food the bank doles out, reiterating that there was plenty of food for the governmental programs it administers.
“We’re not seeing shortages like at grocery stores,” she said.
One Food Bank program that has had its regular cadence interrupted is the “Weekend Backpack” program which provides backpacks of food to 700 area children who rely on school breakfasts and lunches to meet their nutritional needs on weekdays and might otherwise go without on Saturdays and Sundays.
Griffen said the Food Bank still has food for these packages, but that school closures have halted regular distribution. IVFB is currently working on a way to ensure that program beneficiaries aren’t left in the cold.
Though largely chinup about the set of circumstances the IVFB is currently dealing with, Griffen said she knows that times figure to be very tough for a good while to come.
“Our food system is being tested, nationwide and globally,” she said. “I do think the system will recover, but there will continue to be an increase in the number of people needing services before then. … Very few of us have lived through something like this.”
She encouraged those with the means to support the Food Bank, not by sending another can or two from the already picked-over store shelves, but with a monetary consideration, noting that the non-profit organization continues to have “tremendous transportation costs” among other financial burdens.