When shelter in place took effect, we received a number of calls from seniors who were afraid to leave the house to come to our programs. Our services are set up for large central distributions to efficiently serve as many people as possible, while also supplying partner agencies with food to support diverse groups of people. We quickly looked for ways to help our more vulnerable neighbors with food by offering drive-thru distributions. Without leaving their cars nearly 12,000 individuals since March have picked up emergency boxes of shelf-stable food and a bag of produce at sites around Contra Costa and Solano counties. With more people in need than ever, we knew there was more to be done.
Enter the County Proactive Outreach Task Force who identified seniors and immune-compromised people to receive our emergency food boxes. The Task Force includes members from Contra Costa Health Services, and community partners like Seneca Family of Agencies and Choice in Aging. More than 100 boxes were delivered on the first trip using County Connection buses and helpers like Choice in Aging Board Member, and PG&E employee, Vic Baker.
One recipient said of the deliveries, “I received my two boxes and the process has been so simple and wonderful. The food lasts me around 4 days to a week…The canned vegetables and meat has been fantastic. Tell everyone in the program I say thanks!”
