Weekly Impact: July 31, 2020
Community Drive Through Food Distributions
Fridays from 9am to 1pm:
August 7 – Fairgrounds, Watsonville
August 14 – Boardwalk, Santa Cruz
August 21 – Fairgrounds, Watsonville
August 28 – Boardwalk, Santa Cruz
Ongoing Partner Agency Distributions
Community Food Hotline: 831-662-0991
Highlights from this past week:
- Last week we distributed over 296,000 lbs of food throughout the county to nearly 25,000 people.
- 211,000 pounds of that food went out through our non-profit partners. The rest was direct distribution to the community through our nutrition programs and drive through distribution.
- 8,000 pounds of food were distributed by Resurrection Food Pantry last year.
AGENCY PARTNERS MAKE DISTRIBUTIONS POSSIBLE
This week we wanted to highlight a long-standing pantry that has been making an impact in the fight against hunger and malnutrition in our community.
Resurrection Food Pantry in Aptos has been providing food to the community for the past 18 years out of Aptos’s Resurrection Church. The majority of folks receiving food there do live in mid-county, but 20% come from other areas of the community. Since the shelter-in-place order, Resurrection Church reports that the number of “regular” visitors to their pantry has actually gone down, but more new families are coming to receive food. Additionally, they’re seeing an increase in individuals experiencing homelessness seeking assistance. They don’t know why their numbers have changed, but are happy to continue supporting the community.
The volunteers at the pantry are taking more precautions by wearing masks and gloves, sanitizing everything and distributing out pre-packaged bags of food along with smaller “grab and go” bags for guests experiencing homelessness.
The pantry is supported by the parishioners who also volunteer as staff. They report that they are doing well, being a lot more careful and working to keep themselves and their guests safe.
Resurrection Pantry is open every Monday and Friday from 10am – noon.
This week we were back at the Boardwalk, and we’ll be back there on August 14th. If you need help buying groceries you may qualify for CalFresh. Call one of Second Harvest’s friendly CalFresh Outreach team members for more information. Call 831-256-7730 or click here. Summer Feed Hope newsletter is hot off the presses. You can access more information about COVID-19 here:
Center for Disease Control CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
California Department of Public Health: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/ncov2019.aspx
Santa Cruz County Health Department: https://www.santacruzhealth.org/