Salinas Mayor: Please help the Food Bank for Monterey County

A plea from the mayor of Salinas, help the Food Bank for Monterey County. On Thursday, Mayor Joe Gunter saw firsthand the devastation left behind for Saturday’s arson. The fire debris has been cleared out but the most striking thing the mayor noticed was the lack of food in the main warehouse. He fears there are children in his city that are going without food.

“Kids don’t pick where they are born,” Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter said. “They don’t pick who their parents are. They don’t pick the fact that there’s no food on the table at night.”

Executive Director Melissa Kendrick gave the mayor a tour of the facility, showing him the damage that could top $1 million. He saw where the fire started outside, where a stack of pallets used to lay. The driveway that housed four refrigerator trucks has been cleaned. The trucks have been temporarily replaced.

“We picked up a truck yesterday,” Kendrick said. “It came from Northern California. Then we swung by the Food Bank in San Francisco, they loaded it up and we have it here now. We also have two trucks that were rented that have arrived today. And we are hoping to get two more rental trucks by next week.”

Permanent replacement trucks could take weeks to arrive.

“Sadly a lot of those vehicles that we are going to have to order are just that — they’re special order,” Kendrick said. “It could be as quickly as six weeks to three months, so we are going to expedite that.”

Kendrick wanted to have operations fully functional by Monday, but it doesn’t look like it’ll happen. Mayor Gunter is again stressing the need for the communities help. The Food Bank says the best type of donations are money are this point. Mayor Gunter said a donation as little as $10 could help.

“They need funds to start getting this building back up in shape,” Mayor Gunter said. “To grow a little bit, and also to provide food to the people that are hungry. This is the time for this community, which we always do, to step up.”

And find the person responsible for this horrendous crime.

“This rates right up there with a homicide,” Mayor Gunter said. “This is serious because maybe there will be somebody that starves to death, a kid that doesn’t get a meal that gets sick and ends up in the hospital. That’s pretty dramatic when you think about that. Skip a meal for a day, let me know how you feel tomorrow. These kids are surviving that way. It’s not right.”

Fire investigators are actively working the case but do not have any fresh leads right now. If you think you saw anything that night, no matter how small or insignificant, detectives urge you to call authorities anyway.

To find out how you can donate to the Food Bank for Monterey County, click here.