photo credit: Michelle Marques
Redwood Empire Food Bank trucks prepare to distribute food donations.

The government shutdown is halting distribution of CalFresh, California’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program.

In response, the county Board of Supervisors just approved up to $1-million in emergency support. It will go towards helping the Redwood Empire Food Bank feed the nearly 43-thousand people in Sonoma County who have lost CalFresh benefits this month. Supervisor Chris Coursey says there is a significant loss of benefits locally.

“People in Sonoma County average about $300 per recipient of the benefits,” said Coursey. “That amounts to about $8 million a month in food aid that has been halted to Sonoma County.”

Coursey acknowledges the county government money is not going to close the gap.

“Sonoma County doesn't have $8 million that we could allocate to that right now. And we're not sure exactly how much will be needed,” said Coursey. “This government shutdown could end today; it could go on for months. We don't know. So, we're hoping that $1 million will provide some additional relief. It’s better than zero dollars.”

The Redwood Empire Food Bank tells supervisors it can leverage this funding into $3-million dollars’ worth of food. Coursey says there are other steps the county could take, should the suspension of CalFresh benefits continue.

“We also asked our staff to bring us back, on December 9^th, a Declaration of Emergency, if this is going on. That allows us to do things such as have streamlined procurement policies or practices,” Coursey said. “Contracting with government is a slow, detailed, very careful process because of the use of public funds, there's a lot of rules around it. In an emergency, we can act faster.”

In addition to the extra county funding, food bank officials say they are partnering with a nonprofit organization called ‘A Simple Gesture’ and Redwood Credit Union to bolster food donations. Redwood Empire Food Bank spokesperson Rachelle Mesheau says it is already seeing a surge in need.

“Last week alone, we had a 17% increase in traffic to our food distribution sites,” said Mesheau. “We're continuing to see that grow this week now that those SNAP benefits haven't been added to the EBT cards.”

Mesheau explains the idea of A Simple Gesture, which first started in Paradise, California.

“The program began as a way to make it easier for residents to donate non-perishable food to people in need. This gentleman who used to be on our board of directors years ago, he heard about this model and decided he wanted to launch it here,” said Mesheau.

Mark Martindill used his programming skills to create an online hub that connects food donations with volunteers. On specific dates, people are asked to leave a bag of nonperishable food on their doorsteps and then volunteers come by to collect the donations.

“We are hoping that if this this all goes well this holiday season and we see a lot of food coming in, that this is something that we can continue through and just make it an ongoing initiative that we promote,” said Mesheau. “Because how much easier can you make it for someone? They literally just have to open their front door, put it out on the step and that's it.”

Redwood Credit Union made a grant to A Simple Gesture to support the food donation program.

“When we heard about this nonprofit startup, really a community member with the technological skill and the idea and the passion to make this model happen in our communities, we got to learn about what they were thinking about, their plan, their model, and have invested in it to make sure that this is a scalable, sustainable model because it's really not just a seasonal effort. It's a forward-thinking blueprint for how communities can mobilize quickly and effectively with the support of innovative technology,” said Redwood Credit Union’s Matt Martin.

Martin says the credit union is spreading the word about this food donation model at its 22 branches and recruiting volunteers.

“We’ve been working with and recruiting various service groups across our communities like the Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Lions Clubs, and others to be able to be that - the wheels on the ground so to speak and going out to the neighborhoods and picking up these vital donations,” said Martin.

The first collection date is this Saturday, November 8^th, and the following collection is scheduled for Saturday, December 13^th. Learn more on the website A Simple Gesture Sonoma County.