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Addressing Hunger and Healthy Eating During the Holidays and Year-Round

December 21, 2017 By Jenny

At a time of year associated with holiday cheer and sharing, we know there are too many families and individuals in our community who struggle with proper nutrition; not just with getting enough to eat, but lack of access to good healthy choices. It’s an issue of food insecurity that affects far more people than you might expect, ranging from those who are low income or unemployed to college students.

That is why John Muir Health, the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund and Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano believe it is so important to commit time and resources to both encourage and enable healthy lifestyles centered on proper nutrition. Improving nutritional choices and habits are not only humane endeavors, they improve the overall health of our communities.

This month, John Muir Health made a $35,000 holiday contribution to the Food Bank, and has contributed nearly $300,000 since our partnership began. This commitment stems from the direct relationship between fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables and good health.

Our partnership centers on the Food Bank’s Community Produce Program, which gives local residents in underserved communities the opportunity to incorporate fresh fruit and vegetables into their daily diets. Together, we’re working to replace meals loaded with fat and salt with healthy food that will help counter chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease.

Through John Muir Health’s funding support, the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund awarded a series of grants, totaling $725,000, to support the Food Bank that allowed for the hiring of a nutrition educator and the purchase of a customized truck that serves as a rolling produce market for the Community Produce Program. This support has helped to expand and improve the Food Bank’s produce distribution to more than 50 sites every month, and has developed greater access to, and acceptance and understanding of the value of eating fresh fruits and vegetables.

With one in eight Contra Costa and Solano County residents relying on emergency and supplemental meals from the Food Bank, we must do even more. About half of the individuals who are eligible for CalFresh, a federal nutrition assistance program that effectively pulls families out of poverty, do not apply for benefits. Thus, we are working with Contra Costa County and other agencies to help increase enrollment in CalFresh. Together, we are increasing both the number of applications and approval of those applications, which is significantly increasing access to basic food supplies for those who need it.

We’re also acutely aware that many college students, especially those who must provide for their families, face food insecurity. That’s why we are actively collaborating to expand and improve food pantries that operate on the California State University, East Bay campus in Concord and on the Los Medanos Community College campus in Pittsburg. With high housing costs and the cost of education, there are far too many reports of students going hungry. We need this to change, and this pilot initiative is making a difference.

The holiday season is a time to gather with family and friends. It’s also a time of great generosity and giving to those most in need. The Community Produce Program, the College Food Pantry Initiative and many other Food Bank programs contribute to a healthy community not just during the holidays, but year-round. Together, we are encouraging healthier eating habits and better overall health. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!

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Larry Sly, executive director of the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano
Stephanie, Merrell, director of Community Health Improvement, John Muir Health
Lillian Roselin, executive director of the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund

Update on Fires Affecting Local Food Banks

October 12, 2017 By Carly

Food Bank provides assistance to communities impacted by North Bay fires

As devastating fires continue to burn throughout the North Bay, community members, local nonprofits, and government leaders have responded quickly to calls for assistance. The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano stands with all those impacted by this disaster, and we’re mobilizing our resources and community to provide support.

Parts of Solano County are on fire as well as huge swaths of the areas served by our partners at the Redwood Empire Food Bank in Sonoma, the Napa Valley Food Bank, and Yuba Sutter Food Bank. None of our food banks’ warehouses have been impacted and we’ve launched an immediate and coordinated response.

Neighborhoods within a few miles of our Food Bank’s Fairfield headquarters have received “prepare to evacuate” orders, but our warehouse is not threatened at this time. Green Valley and rural areas east of Fairfield in Solano County have already received mandatory evacuation orders. The Food Bank is coordinating with evacuation centers in Solano to provide food assistance to displaced residents.

The Food Bank was forced to temporarily suspend some Farm to Kids distributions due to school closures in Fairfield and Vacaville, but all other programs are operating normally at this time.

Seven Bay Area food banks, including ours, have a regional disaster plan in place and an agreement to come to each other’s aid in an emergency. The strength of our partnerships allowed us to immediately mobilize, providing affected food banks with truckloads of donated food, staff support, media outreach assistance, and other resources.

Affected counties and the state of California have deployed their own resources and issued requests for federal assistance, including the Disaster SNAP program and other emergency food resources. As we wait for responses,The Food Bank has been providing updates to our elected officials and preparing for the possible distribution of federal assistance.

If you are able to donate to food banks in the impacted North Bay communities, please do so today.

	Giv e to the Redwood Empire Food Bank in Sonoma
	Give to the Napa Valley Food Bank
	Give to the Yuba Sutter Food Bank
	Give to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano

Due to the evolving nature of the fires and our response, we will send out additional updates. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Communications Manager, Lisa Sherrill at lsherrill@foodbankccs.org.

Big Thanks to Rancho Solano!

July 20, 2016 By Jenny

Thanks to the generous residents and helpful volunteers of Rancho Solano for holding their 16^th Annual Food Drive, Thanksgiving in June.

They collected 2,351 pounds of food for the Food Bank! We are especially appreciative for the generous donation, since food donations tend to decrease down during the summer months.

“Kiewit CAN Build” Food Drive and Competition

July 18, 2016 By Guest

From May 11th – June 15th, 2016 the Northern California Leadership Succession Program (LSP) sponsored a District-wide canned food drive and collected cash donations to benefit the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. With the support of our projects and the District Office, the food drive gathered 1,473 cans of food and raised $2,412.44. Kiewit gave a matching donation of $1500.

On Thursday, June 16^th, LSP members participated in the “Kiewit CAN Build” Competition where 3 teams competed by building structures made entirely out of canned food. The theme was “Engineering Marvels”. Money raised during the Food Drive was used to purchase supplemental canned goods for the competition. In less than 2 hours, each team created an amazing structure – the Hoover Dam and Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, and AT&T Park.

Each structure was judged in accordance with the competition specifications. A panel of juror’s awarded structures for the “Best Use of Labels”, for “Structural Ingenuity”, and as the “Jurors’ Favorite”. District Office staff had the opportunity to vote for the “People’s Choice” Award.

The event was a great success and resulted in the donation of 3741 cans of food (3748 lbs pounds) and $978.58 to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties. This well exceeded our goal of 2,000 cans.

Special thanks to the Kiewit/Cherne staff, craft, clients, and partners who donated cash or cans, Safeway, Costco, and the “Kiewit CAN Build” Teams! Thank you also to crews from the Crystal Springs Bridge Project and Vallejo Yard for building and demobilizing platforms for the event.

2016 Northern CA LSP Members (L-R):
Michael Douthit, Erin Estenson, Ryan Enneking, Steve Mendoza, Pablo Chavarria, Frank Salhab, Garrett Smith, Sam Nasser, Mark Berns, Rita Encarnacion-Malixi, Jeremiah Henry, Scott Williams, Brandon Risso, Leo Estenson, Stephanie Weldon, Peter Weiss, Matt Jansen

AT&T Park (765 cans)
Brandon Risso, Stephanie Weldon*, Matt Jansen, Peter Weiss, Leo Estenson
Award: “Best Use of Labels”

“Eiffel Tower” (950 cans)
Frank Salhab, Garrett Smith, Sam Nasser, Scott Williams, Jeremiah Henry, Rita Encarnacion-Malixi*
Award: “Jurors’ Favorite”

“Hoover Dam and Bridge” (1300 cans)
Michael Douthit, Erin Estenson, Steve Mendoza, Pablo Chavarria, Mark Berns, Ryan Enneking*
Award: “Structural Ingenuity” and “People’s Choice”

Letter Carriers Help Stamp Out Hunger

May 4, 2016 By Jenny

Originally posted in the Vacaville Reporter: The 24th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will be taking place on Saturday, May 14.

The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano is busy preparing for this largest one-day national food drive of the year.

Be on the lookout for a postcard in your mailbox from your letter carrier asking you to put out a bag of food to share with your neighbors in need. Letter carriers work extremely hard on this day to make it as easy as possible for you to help the food-insecure members of our community.

To participate in this event, all you need to do is leave a bag of nonperishable food by your mailbox prior to your regular Saturday mail delivery. The food collected helps feed low-income children during the summer months when they are out of school and without access to free meals.

The Food Bank received over 181,000 pounds of food last year from this drive; more than 70 million pounds of food was collected nationwide. To accommodate the volume of incoming food, we place our Food Bank vehicles strategically throughout the community to serve as collection sites for the letter carriers. Safeway and Lucky Supermarkets also help out by lending us their trailers to act as additional collection locations.

To make this event a success, the Food Bank reaches out to the community for help in processing these donations. We get assistance from businesses, service clubs and faith communities.

On the Monday morning after the food drive, we unload cardboard bins of canned goods into our warehouse. These collapsible bins are triple-stacked and fill our warehouse. Our volunteer groups lend a helping hand by sorting food into a variety of categories including canned vegetables, canned fruit, ready-to-eat meals and a dozen other categories.

After the food is sorted, we are able to distribute it to the 180 agencies we serve.

We are thankful to be a part of this monumental community effort. We appreciate the hard-working letter carriers, the support of the grocery stores and the numerous volunteer groups. But none of this would be possible if it weren’t for everyday citizens willing to share some food with their neighbors in need.

We are part of a generous caring community who understands that no one in this country should ever go hungry.

Please mark your calendar, set a reminder on your phone or put a string around your finger… whatever it takes to remind you to participate in this crucial food drive!

Something as easy as sharing some food staples like peanut butter, hearty soups, dried or canned beans, grains, tuna or canned fruits and vegetables can mean the world to hungry families.

The author is executive director of the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, based in Concord. Email: info@foodbankccs.org.

Give Local Solano: Make a Donation on May 3rd and Help the Food Bank Receive Matching Funds!

April 27, 2016 By Neil

Do you want to help the Food Bank AND increase awareness of all the good being done in your community?

On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano will be participating in Give Local Solano, a one-day national event organized by Give Local America in an effort to build a culture of philanthropy. The Solano Community Foundation, the Food Bank and 28 other local nonprofits will participate in this online day of giving that brings community members together for 24 hours.

Giving to the Food Bank couldn’t be easier. From 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM on May 3, just go to GiveLocalSolano.org and look for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano on the Leaderboard, or under Human Services. If you want a shortcut, just use this link to go directly to our page.

Not only will you help Food Bank programs in Solano County with your donation, all gifts will be partially matched by local corporations. The more donations the Food Bank receives through Give Local Solano, the higher our share of the match!

Please mark your calendars for Give Local Solano on May 3. This is the day when we can all join together and help our community by supporting the Food Bank.

P.S. You can give to Give Local Solano no matter where you live. Contra Costans and friends or family from all over the world are just a mouse click away.

Time is Running Out-Holiday Financial Donations down $400,000

December 30, 2015 By Rachel

As 2015 comes to a close, the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano is in dire need of your help. We need to reach our $3 million dollar holiday fundraising goal in order to continue normal operation. If you haven’t given already, would you consider doing so now?

Typically the end of the year is our busiest time for financial contributions. However, the holidays have come and gone and the Food Bank is currently $400,000 behind in monetary donations.

Please help us continue services in 2016! Because the Food Bank already operates in an extremely efficient manner, with 96 cents of every dollar going directly to food programs, a budget shortfall would result in less food for our neighbors in need. We don’t want to have to turn anyone away.

Every little bit truly does make a difference. For every dollar you donate, the Food Bank can provide enough food for two meals.

You can help ensure all of our work in the community will continue in 2016 by donating by midnight on December 31st at www.foodbankccs.org/holidays.

Thank you for your support.

Help Us Celebrate 40 Years By Donating To Food Bank

July 28, 2015 By Larry

Originally posted on the Vacaville Reporter: It is common to dread turning forty, but we at the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano are proud of what we have accomplished as we turn the big 4-0. Today marks the 40th anniversary that our incorporation documents were filed.

To honor our 40th birthday, generous donors came together to make up the Friends of the Fortieth Fund. They contributed $40,000 to be used as a matching fund for other donors. In short, if community members rally together to contribute $40,000, we will actually receive $80,000 because of the dollar-for-dollar match.

What does this mean to the food-insecure people we serve? Since we are able to provide two meals for every dollar we receive, your donations (along with the matching funds) will allow us to provide 160,000 meals to children and seniors in our community.

The concept of a local food bank started with a borrowed Safeway trailer, parked in a church parking lot, and two employees who had access to trucks. When people applying for government assistance programs ran into delays, eligibility workers would refer them to these pantries to obtain emergency food.

At the beginning, we were providing food to 19 emergency food pantries. We now serve almost 200 pantries and 1 in 8 residents.

We are no longer an agency exclusively providing short-term assistance. We still support pantries that assist people on an emergency basis, but we also are an essential part of the ongoing community response to hunger.

We have developed specific programs that give food to low-income seniors and low-income children. We also make available donated food from the US Department of Agriculture to low-income people in Solano and Contra Costa counties. Our Community Produce Program provides fresh fruit and vegetables at clinics, churches and schools in low-income neighborhoods. We are part of a network that food-insecure people use to help provide for their families.

Our ongoing job is to continue providing food to people in need, while working to end hunger. What are some of the things we do to end hunger? We partner with governmental, philanthropic and other community-based programs to try to increase participation in the CalFresh program. We are working to help more children benefit from the School Lunch Program and Summer Meal Program. We engage the community and advocate at the Capitol so we can help everyone obtain the good nutrition they need to thrive.

Our founders knew that saving food from waste was a good idea. The same principle guides us today, as we see what food donations are available and determine how best to use them to meet the needs of the people we serve. However, food donations alone don’t cover the need within our community. We need to also purchase food in order to meet the demand. And you guessed it, purchasing food takes money.

If you are interested in making a donation to the Food Bank in honor of our 40th anniversary of serving the community, you can do so at www.foodbankccs.org/40for40.

We humbly thank our community members for your continued support during the past forty years.

Grocery Outlet in Concord is Fighting Hunger and Needs Your Help!

July 15, 2015 By Joan

The Concord Grocery Outlet store, located at 1840 Willow Pass Road in Concord, is pre-packaging bags of food for the Independence From Hunger Food Drive during the month of July. The price of the bags varies between $3 and $10 so everyone can buy a bag to donate to those in need in our community. So far they have collected 1,840 pounds and we want to help them get to 4,000 pounds by the end of July. Thanks to Grocery Outlet for their continued support of the Food Bank!

Help the Concord Grocery Outlet turn the empty barrel into a full barrel.

Holiday Spirit Of Giving Is Needed The Whole Year Long

July 14, 2015 By Larry

Originally posted on the Vacaville Reporter: When I was a child (a long time ago), the newspaper had a little box listing the number of days until Christmas. Maybe it was an advertisement paid for by retailers, but it certainly made me count down to the ultimate holiday. As an adult, it is amazing how fast the holidays sneak up on us. With that said, we are officially more than halfway to the 2015 holiday season.

Different wintertime holidays provide opportunities for introspection and celebration to honor important cultural events. The holidays are a time when people are most likely to take action in making a difference in their community. Generous people provide the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano with food donations, financial donations and volunteer hours.

If you looked at a graph of the Food Bank’s support month by month in all three areas, you’d see the enormous peaks in November and December.

The challenge for the Food Bank is that the people we serve are hungry every day. We assist food-insecure people all year long. We stretch the food we receive during the holidays as far as we are able.

However, we end up purchasing more food during the summer to offset the decline in food donations and food drives. The National Association of Letter Carriers helps us out by conducting a large-scale food drive in the spring.

We need this enthusiasm for hosting food drives year round from both big organizations and individuals wanting to make a difference.

Whether you want to host a food drive or drop nonperishable food off at an existing one, visit us at www.foodbankccs.org/fooddrive for more information.

There often is a spike in financial donations during the holidays from both corporations and individuals.

People want their neighbors to all have a good holiday meal. To help people receive proper nourishment all year long, we make it easy to donate on a monthly basis. To find out more about becoming a pledge donor, visit www.foodbankccs.org/donate.

Even though we expand our volunteer opportunities during the holidays, we often have to limit the number of groups we can safely accommodate because of the increased interest in volunteering. During the summer, we have more perishable fresh produce available to us than anytime of the year, so we need volunteers to help sort it in a timely manner.

In fact, an opportunity is coming up on Saturday, July 18, for families with young children, ages 5 and older, to volunteer. Our Fairfield warehouse is hosting its monthly Family Food Sort. Details and registration information are available at www.foodbanksccs.org/familyfoodsort.

The holiday season is a time for us to come together as families and as a unified community.

I often wish that the holiday spirit, especially the desire to help others, were with us throughout the year. The need to feed people in our community does not go away after the holidays. Why wait until November to take action? When people show the holiday spirit all year long, the gift they give is a strong and healthy community.

Celebrating 40 Years Of Service To The Community

June 2, 2015 By Larry

Originally posted on the Vacaville Reporter: The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano appreciates the many relationships that we have with the community. We depend on these alliances to help us achieve our mission.

The Food Bank relies on the individuals and organizations that donate food, so we can get it to those who need it the most. We value our partnerships with local nonprofit agencies, as they provide food to people who we don’t reach through direct distribution.

Because of the rapport we have with our volunteers, more than 80,000 hours of work is donated to our cause each year. And the connections we have with our financial donors allow us to effectively distribute more than 20 million pounds of food to those in need every year.

This year marks a milestone to celebrate these relationships as we acknowledge the 40th anniversary of the Food Bank’s work. We held our first annual Nourish gala on May 16 and this year we recognized 40 years of service. The event was held at Round Hill Country Club and we were joined by nearly 200 supporters. Donors were there from our lead corporate sponsor, Chevron, along with seventeen other corporate supporters. Roberta Gonzales, from KPIX CBS 5, was our emcee and raised the spirits of everyone in the room with her infectious energy. The enthusiasm Roberta generated was a great help when our fund raising auction began.

We began the live auction with my homemade lemon bars that I am “required” to make for every staff potluck at the Food Bank. They sold for $1,100, which made for an incredible beginning! We then auctioned off naming rights for one year to the sorting area in our Fairfield and Concord warehouses, generating $11,000.

The highlight of the live auction was when we came to the final item, “Feed the Need”. The Food Bank made the request for a new trailer to use to transport food. We asked attendees to contribute to the purchase of the trailer (building on the money generously donated the previous day in Valero’s skeet shoot fundraiser). Their response was amazing, and we raised more than $40,000! People gave because they wanted to make a difference; they wanted to help the Food Bank provide more food to those in need in our community. Through the generosity of those who supported our Nourish event, we raised more than $125,000 to help fight hunger in our community.

We also took a step forward in creating the Kris Lesher-Aring Giving Circle. These major donors will honor the memory of Kris Lesher-Aring who was involved in many philanthropic efforts before she passed away. Kris attended our 25th anniversary and spoke of her belief that there should not be hunger in a community as prosperous as ours. We know that many of our donors share her belief and this is a way to acknowledge those who give significant support to our efforts.

The gala was a time to acknowledge all that we have accomplished over the last 40 years and a time to look toward the future.

Food Bank To Hold Black-Tie Optional Fundraiser

May 12, 2015 By Larry

Originally posted on the Vacaville Reporter: The year was 1975. Gasoline cost $0.44 a gallon. The average cost of a home was $40,000. You could get a brand new car for $4,000. Even back then, although those prices seem like a bargain today, not everyone had enough food to get by. This is why the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano (then called the Community Food Coalition) formed and incorporated.

We were simply a group of people who were responding to the needs of our community. When someone applied for food stamps or other government assistance programs, there would often be delays in receiving benefits.

For people in that predicament, the eligibility worker would refer them to a local church or community center where they could get three days of food from local volunteer organizations. The Food Bank was created to help those organizations stretch their dollars by buying food in bulk and soliciting donations.

Little did we understand in 1975 the impact that the Food Bank would have in our community and how the need for food would grow.

Last year we provided over twenty million pounds of food to people in need in our local communities.

We work with nearly two hundred nonprofit service agencies and have a variety of direct service programs that bring food directly to low-income senior citizens, children and other people in need. We have a positive health impact on the people we serve because over half the food we distribute is fresh produce.

Everyone connected with the organization is incredibly proud of what we have been able to accomplish, but we struggle with using the term “celebration” to acknowledge our fortieth anniversary.

Some of us feel that it would truly be a cause for celebration if we didn’t have the need for food banks in a country that is as wealthy as the United States.

More importantly than looking back at what we’ve accomplished over the past 40 years, is the need to look forward. We need to focus on what needs to be done to get food in the hands of people who need it.

In addition to food donations, we need to raise money to pay the handling fees for the produce we distribute and for transporting it to our warehouse. We need to raise funds to pay for our trucks and drivers who bring the food to those we serve.

To honor 40 years of nourishing our community, we are holding a black-tie optional gala on Saturday, May 16. Nourish is our 1st annual Gala benefitting the Food Bank.

Money raised at the gala will help us accomplish the work we need to do in the coming years. For every dollar we receive, 0.96 goes directly to food programs.

If you would like to come to this dinner dance and auction fundraiser, visit www.foodbankccs.org/40th. On the web page you can RSVP to the event or make a donation if you want to help, but are unable to attend the gala.

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