Thousands of families fed at food distribution Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds event
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION) By 11:30 a.m. Friday, 2,500 families were fed at Second Harvest Food Bank's community food distribution event at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. Food Bank workers and the National Guard didn't leave until roughly 3,000 families were supplied with groceries for the week.
“For my family it means a lot. It's very helpful, and I’m very proud how communities, not just here, are giving back,” Watsonville resident Prisila Ponciano said.
The event, which lasted until 1 p.m., was open for Santa Cruz County residents to receive a bag of pantry items and a bag of produce.
“The community has the food we need. There's no reason to panic, and there’s no reason to hoard food,” Suzanne Willis with the Second Harvest Food Bank said.
About 20% of Santa Cruz county relies on the food bank regularly. Over the past two weeks, the community hotline has received 10 times its normal amount of calls.
“At one site normally there’s about 40 to 50 people that come for food support. It was 320,” Willis said.
Although there are more than a 100 food distribution sites around the county, the food bank needed a way to efficiently reach a larger number of families.
“The fairgrounds is really the only place in our county we can do this. So it allowed us to have 3,000 families drive through,” Willis said.
The food bank is planning another drive-thru distribution at the site of the former drive-in theater on Soquel next week.
For more information about next week's event, call the Community Food Hotline at 831-622-0991 or go online to www.thefoodbank.org.
For those needing food assistance in other parts of the Central Coast, San Benito County residents can call 831-637-0340, and Monterey County residents can call 831-758-1523.
