9 Months After Fires and Redwood Empire Food Bank Still Sees Long Lines

The Press Democrat spoke to Redwood Empire staff about the community in Sonoma’s continued reliance on emergency food services. From the article:

Ripple effects from the fires forced the Redwood Empire Food Bank to stretch its resources with its Station 3990 program — a network of mobile, drive-through distribution centers held 12 times a week across seven cities. Since the first center opened outside the food bank Oct. 14, the program has doled out $4 million in food, serving 28,000 households and 110,000 individuals, according to data from the nonprofit.

 

And, the need isn’t going away, though the organization is strapped for volunteers and has seen as much as a 20 percent increase in demand for some programs, said Director of Programs Allison Goodwin.

 

“We thought we’d have some sort of robust immediate need. We weren’t really sure what the ongoing need would be,” she said. “The reality is yes, there’s an ongoing need … we would have expected it to drop off a little more dramatically than it did. It continues to be robust, week after week.”

Read the entire story here.

(Photo by Redwood Empire Food Bank)