FIND Food Bank helps over 400 families in need of food at Indio distribution on Saturday
The Desert's Regional Food Bank; FIND Food Bank distributed food to hundreds of families in need on Saturday morning at First A.M.E. Church in Indio. News Channel 3’s Caitlin Thropay was there and tells us why it had to be shut down early.
“It’s been a tough time for me and my family because I’m the one who provides food for the family and I have to be at work and if I’m not at work then my family won’t eat,” Luis Morales told News Channel 3 while waiting in line to get a bag of food from FIND Food Bank.
Over 400 households received food from FIND at their distribution in Indio. Many families walked away with hands and hearts full but some did not.
“Typically this site is about 100 families," president and CEO of FIND Food Bank, Debbie Espinosa said. "This is one of our regular distribution sites that we have every month,” she added.
In fact, so many people showed up that cars were lined up past Jackson street.
“The line has backed up to the freeway right now with people who are in need of food assistance,” Lorena Marroquin, director of impact at FIND Food Bank said.
Unfortunately, not everyone in line was able to leave with food. Indio police came and cars were forced to turn around.
“People that were coming to the site that weren’t able to receive food because we had a stop time of 11 o’clock today and we had enough people in line that was going to take us up to that mark, we redirected them to our Monday site,” Espinosa said.
With help from Indio police they were able to manage the crowds to the best of their ability.
“We are so thankful for officer Polanco from the Indio Police Department and his team being out here today to help with assistance and to ensure that traffic flow and clients flow was handled in a really calm and safe manner,” she said.
Especially in this time, FIND is doing all they can to put food in the hands of those in need.
“I’m raising four grandkids and it’s important to get what they need,” Vicki Castro said while waiting for hours in her car to get food from FIND.
The locations of FIND Food Bank’s next distributions will be posted on their website: http://www.findfoodbank.org/
