Americorps NCCC volunteers arrive at FIND Food Bank to help assist in food hunger crisis
Eight volunteers from Americorps NCCC arrived at FIND Food Bank on Monday to help with the Valley’s food insecurity crisis.
“We know there’s an incredible need in the community so we’re excited to learn about the need, learn about the community," Katelynn Demskie, the team lead told News Channel 3.
Americorps NCCC is a group designed for young adults to travel the country and serve full-time in areas that need it most.
They provide help during natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes and they also help with the hunger crisis.
This team will help FIND Food Bank for three months.
“We’ll be working the warehouse, sorting food and quality control, packaging bags to be distributed and we’ll also be working at the mobile sites helping to get food to people and we’ll also be helping with office support as well," Demskie said.
It’s a competitive program to secure these volunteers from AmeriCorps. FIND Food Bank worked with the NCCC regional director and the state of California to get approval for these volunteers.
“One really incredible thing about the food ask project, this specific project is just how everything came together in a really fast, collaborative, incredible way," Amanda Cochran, the assistant program director for Americorps NCCC told News Channel 3. "The food bank put together their application, they went to the local county commissioner, to the mayor to say hey this is something we need, this is going to impact the community and making sure housing was available to the team," she added.
“It’s really important for us to have the NCCC Americorps here helping us because we are going to continue to provide our increase services from 2020 to 2021," Kayleen Sullivan, the development and community relations coordinator for FIND Food Bank said.
FIND Food Bank continues to help feed over 175,000 people every month and to make that happen they need lots of volunteers.
“The NCCC teams that showed up today is part of a statewide effort that was launched right when the pandemic began by Governor Newsom who wanted to make sure that we were supporting our food banks who are protecting the most vulnerable in our communities," Josh Fryday, the chief service officer for California Volunteers said.
In addition to these volunteers, FIND Food Bank continues to get assistance from the national guard.
“These volunteers and these service members are a critical piece of that and so are all the other volunteers that are stepping up," Fryday said.
At least a dozen AmeriCorps NCCC teams are deployed throughout California helping with pandemic responses.
To learn more about AmeriCorps visit:
https://americorps.gov/serve/fit-finder/americorps-nccc
To volunteer at FIND Food Bank visit:
