Laura McLane is the Assistant Director for North Valley Community Food Bank and a graduate from the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano’s 2025 Speaker Series. She brings lived experience and deep empathy to her work, shaped by her journey through hunger, addiction, homelessness, and the loss of everything in the 2018 Camp Fire. These hardships taught Laura resilience and gave her a clear calling: to use her story to bring hope, raise awareness, and fight for lasting change.

As a young single mother, Laura often went without food so her son could eat. She didn’t know food pantries were available — and that lack of awareness made hard times even harder. Later, when she was living in her car, she survived on ketchup and hot sauce packets. Even after rebuilding, disaster struck again, and she found herself rationing food — not just for herself, but for her community.

Laura now leads with the belief that no one should ever feel ashamed to ask for help, and no mother should have to choose between paying rent or feeding her child. She advocates for policies like AB 1616 and H.R. 6203 to ensure families receive support before and after disaster hits.

In her words: “You must hurt to know, fall to grow, lose to gain. Life’s greatest lessons are learned through pain.”