Local business challenges others to donate to Food Bank for Monterey County

Donations are pouring in at the Food Bank for Monterey County after a fire on Saturday. Food pantries across the county said they’re running short. Food Bank officials said every little bit of help is going to make a big difference.

What took a suspected arsonist minutes to destroy is taking a team of people hours to clean up. Refrigerator trucks destroyed in the fire have been hauled away. It’s not just the debris outside that’s being cleaned up, but also inside the warehouse.

Much of the food on the shelves had to be thrown out because it was contaminated by fire and smoke. That food was supposed to go to more than 130 local food pantries in the county, including the Salvation Army in Sand City. They are already feeling the effects, whose shelves are close to going empty.

“Yesterday we were supposed to go over and pick up a delivery of food that we ordered,” Anthony Lopes of the Salvation Army said. “And as a result of the fire, we not have to wait another week.”

A $10,000 donation from California Water Service will help put food back on the shelves here. It hopes that other local businesses will follow their lead.

“I would love to challenge the other businesses in this town to step up and help out,” Mike Jones, district manager of California Water Service said. “There’s a bunch of other businesses out there that can do the same thing and maybe this will inspire a few of them to do that.”

For the Food Bank, the help means everything.

“It’s true, 20 percent is what we serve,” Melissa Kendrick, executive director of the Food Bank for Monterey County, said. “But it’s the other 80 percent who are completely generous, and I can’t tell you how easier this has made a difficult time.”

The Food Bank is in talks with its counterparts in San Francisco and Orange County. Both have offered to lend their refrigerator trucks to make sure no one goes hungry.