Anonymous
Source: Foodbank of Santa Barbara County
After one of its refrigerated trucks (model-year 2008) was totaled in a non-injury accident on May 11, the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County seeks the community’s support to replace the lost vehicle, and to purchase an additional new one to expand service to the community with a larger fleet.
“During our Covid-19 emergency response, the Foodbank has more than doubled the food we distribute, is serving 65% more people than usual, hired 15% more staff, has had 20 National Guard troops provide 6,000 hours of service, along with hundreds of new community volunteers. We’ve acquired two additional warehouses and two refrigerated trailers to expand our storage capacity, but we were using the same trucks as we do for our normal operations,” explained Erik Talkin, Foodbank CEO.
“The truck accident highlighted the need to expand our vehicle fleet, to meet this crisis as well as future emergencies.”
The Foodbank has raised enough to activate a $50,000 matching grant from Yardi Systems, Inc. Online donations, with the matching grant and a $20,000 insurance payout for the totaled vehicle make it possible to replace the lost truck.
Additional funds need to be raised to cover the following costs:
$120,000 New refrigerated truck for expanded food distribution needs
$12,500 Protective truck wraps
$6,500 Replace 4,600 lbs of food lost in traffic accident
The total that remains to be raised is $139,000.
The Foodbank acquired two refrigerated semi trailers through Feeding America (the nationwide network of 200 food banks of which Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is a member). The trailers only serve as stationary cold storage; they do not provide any additional transportation.
Community members may donate to support the truck purchase campaign by clicking here (https://donate.foodbanksbc.org/campaign/truck-for-the-foodbank/c286351?c_src=newsrelease5.21) or by visiting www.FoodbankSBC.org.
About the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County
The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is transforming hunger into health by eliminating food insecurity through good nutrition and food literacy. The Foodbank provides nourishment and education through a network of more than 300 nonprofit community partners and more than 1,500 volunteers. In Santa Barbara County, one in four people receive food support from the Foodbank, which equates to more than 190,000 unduplicated people, 40% of whom are children. Last year, the Foodbank distributed 10 million pounds of food – nearly half of which was fresh produce. The Foodbank is assuming a major leadership role in countywide disaster preparedness with initiatives including a host of Covid-19 response programs, disaster food boxes, disaster feeding plan, establishing a new south county warehouse and updating our trucks for safer food storage and transport. For more information, visit www.foodbanksbc.org.
