Update: Food bank to deliver food to high desert after dozens went home empty handed Monday
Update: Community Action of San Bernardino says it will be making some food deliveries Wednesday. On Monday, dozens of people living in the high desert that depend on the food bank had to be turned away.
The food bank says the truck that delivers the food broke down last week, and it wasn’t fixed in time for Monday morning’s delivery.
“In the event of an unexpected interruption in service, we make every effort to make alternative plans to ensure that we are able to continue serving in such a circumstance,” said Brandon Romano, Program Manager at Community Action of San Bernardino, “The deliveries have been loaded and will be arriving tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to several partner agencies. Many of the food distributions did take place on Monday with partner agencies that had a surplus of supplies from the prior month,” he said.
The following locations will be receiving deliveries and will be able to fulfill their critical distributions:
*Church of the Lighted Valley*
Distribution TBA
*Yucca Valley Community Center*
Distribution this Wednesday 8:30-10:30am
*Joshua Tree Community Center*
Distribution 10-12pm
*Evangelist Mission*
Distribution TBA
Imagine having to go without food for an entire month. That’s what dozens of people living in the high desert were faced with Monday morning, when a food bank they depend on turned them away.
“Extremely upset, for this community it’s needed desperately up here,” said Dina Crawford, who helps every month at the Joshua Tree Community Center distributing boxes of food to people in need.
“I usually show up here around 8 o’clock to help, take the food off the truck and put it inside, pack the boxes and take them outside to the people who are waiting,” Crawford said.
Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino receives the food donations and delivers it to the Joshua Tree Center on the third Monday of every month. Some of the food also gets picked up and delivered to other areas, however this Monday, dozens of people went home empty handed.
“We waited around and all of a sudden we get a phone call from Community Action saying ‘Sorry, there’s no truck today,’ for the whole high desert,” she said.
Crawford said workers with the food bank didn’t say much more and people were left not knowing what to do. She described it as heartbreaking having to tell people they had to go home without any food.
“There was one lady after everybody had left that had showed up with her children to get some food and she started bawling when I told her no food today,” She said.
Crawford says people plan their day around the delivery and coordinate transportation to the community center in order to get food.
“These people they rely on this at the end of the month and if its not here some of them go hungry they have nothing to eat, especially our seniors and some our single parents as well.”
The food bank says the truck that delivers the food broke down last week, and it wasn’t fixed in time for Monday morning’s delivery.
In a statement they said, “This was an unfortunate circumstance that disrupted our scheduled service to those we serve. Backup arrangements through another partner, second harvest food bank of riverside, have been made and the delivery will go out later this week.”
The food bank’s program manager is hoping as soon as Wednesday.
Crawford is happy the food bank is taking action. She believes there should never be a reason for a person, especially our seniors and those who are disabled, to go hungry.
“I’m hoping that they’ll be better prepared next time,” Crawford said.
