Emergency benefits, including some CalFresh allotments, are ending with the covid state of emergency next week. Families that relied on the extra assistance in the last three years are now advised to turn to food banks, which are stocking up for an increase in clientele.
That includes the Fort Bragg Food Bank, according to Operations Coordinator Lisi Martinez
“With the CalFresh benefits being almost doubled with those emergency funds, many families were utilizing their CalFresh benefits and not coming to the food bank,” she explained. “So that’s why we’re preparing for an influx of people whose monthly food budget is literally going to be cut in half. If not more.”
Last year, CalFresh allotments in Mendocino County exceeded $48 million, as compared to $18 million in 2018. Last year’s emergency allotment is about $18 million, roughly the same as the entire allotment, prior to the pandemic. Families will receive their final emergency food rations at the end of February.
Martinez said that the Fort Bragg Food Bank, which doubles as Mendocino Food and Nutrition, plays a large role in food distribution throughout the county. Mendocino Food and Nutrition distributes all the emergency food that the state provides to the county. “So we go down to Gualala, Round Valley, Legget, Laytonville, Ukiah,” all the 18 food pantries in the county, she added. The organization also recently purchased a warehouse on Blosser Lane in Willits, which can accommodate large trucks and spare them the trip over Highway 20 to Fort Bragg. Martinez said that last year, Mendocino Food and Nutrition distributed 2.5 million pounds of food. She said about 5,000 people visit the food banks per month, and 15,000 per month frequent the soup kitchens.
The food bank is preparing for the end of the CalFresh emergency allotments in a variety of ways. Martinez said the organization just got “a really good deal” from Grocery Outlet, and it still has some emergency food boxes from the state. The Redwood Empire Food Bank has also contributed 18 pallets of food to the warehouse in Fort Bragg. “It’s a mix of everything,” she said, from donations to grants to state assistance, including one state grant for rural and remote areas.
Rachelle Sutherland, the Outreach Coordinator for the Fort Bragg Food Bank, is planning a program of pop-up food banks, in an effort to reach more of those areas. Next month, she is planning for pop-ups in Laytonville, Willits, and Round Valley. Many of the smaller food banks are only open once a month, or just a few days a week. “Here in Fort Bragg, we’re open every day of the week,” she noted. “So it’s very convenient. They also don’t have the grocery stores that we have.” She is considering pop-ups in Potter Valley and Hopland as well, though she is also on the lookout for anyone who would like to host a food bank, which would be staffed by Fort Bragg employees. “I can get them the food, I can get them the supplies,” she promised.
The food bank is also actively looking for volunteers, who can help with the expected increase in clientele. “Volunteers just need to have the willingness to help people and a couple of spare hours,” Martinez said. Since shifting the Choice Pantry, an approach that is more like shopping at a grocery store than receiving a box of pre-selected goods, she said that she has noticed a lot more personal interactions. “It’s totally normal to come to the food bank,” she emphasized. “It’s a hand up. It’s not charity.” She is working hard to eradicate “the misconception that the food bank is kind of your last resort. We want to be your first line of defense.”