Summer
Summer
Volunteers play a crucial role in our work, especially now when the need for our services has increased drastically. Groups and individuals are welcome to join us at our warehouse, in our office providing administrative support, or out on-site distributing food throughout the Desert Region at our Community Mobile Markets.
In previous years, the Kids’ Summer Club offered a 10-week distribution of healthy, kid-friendly food and snacks that reached over 6,000 children and their families weekly in 42 different locations, providing a Farmers’ Market atmosphere with fresh produce. As the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic linger, so does the number of children facing food insecurity. Of the 150,000 people we are feeding on average each month, about 60,000 people are between 0 and 18 years old. A staggering hunger cliff that we address with immediate food assistance through the summer.
This year, FIND continues to reach kids where they are with 44 community mobile markets strategically located within 3 miles of any given neighborhood to ensure everyone has access to healthy food. This is in addition to the 25 sites that the three regional school districts provide to give free meals to students while they are at home. These 69 sites in total, operating at different times and locations, maximize food access through the summer. Our mobile markets feed the whole family for up to a week, and we continue distributing food at double the levels from before the pandemic to meet the need that remains 60% higher than previous years.
In addition, FIND Food Bank works with our community-based distribution partners to determine summer-program needs that help them reach as many young people as possible. We try to reach not only those kids who are able to participate in summer programs, but also siblings left at home — on the weekends, we send extra food home for others living there, which helps bridge the nutrition gap for another weekend.