Food donated to county's needy
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OAKLAND, CALIF.
Food banks in the San Francisco Bay Area recently received some 75,000 pounds of Deseret brand food from the Church. The food, under the direction of the Church's humanitarian program, was delivered by truck from the Sacramento Bishops Storehouse to the Alameda County Food Bank in Oakland.
Thomas Gleeson, director of development for the county food bank, explained that the services provided by food banks depend heavily upon this kind of donation from community members.
"We are the safety net for this community," he explained. "We wouldn't be able to do this if we didn't have these kinds of strong relationships in our area. We wouldn't have the quantity or quality we have for those we service."
The Alameda County Food Bank retained 20,000 pounds of the food for families in the Greater Oakland area. The remainder of the food was distributed as follows: The Contra Costa Food Bank received 20,000 pounds; the San Francisco Food Bank, 20,000; the San Bruno Catholic Charities, 7,500 pounds; and Opportunity House, 7,500 pounds. These major agencies redistribute the food to smaller agencies and individual families as needed.
One of the smaller agencies receiving food is Family Crisis Services in Livermore, near Oakland. This agency services the Tri-Valley area of the East Bay, which includes Livermore, Pleasanton and San Ramon. The agency's director, Velma Foster, is a member of the Livermore California Stake. A recent Monday morning found Sister Foster busily directing LDS volunteers from the stake and the California Oakland Mission, along with other community members.
They unloaded the cases of Deseret products in preparation for distribution.
According to Dale Bills of the Church's Public Affairs Department, the Church has donated some 13,675 tons of food through humanitarian assistance programs between 1984-1997.
