Find Food Bank awards its ‘Hunger Heroes’

Thirteen awardees were recognized at the FIND Food Bank’s Hunger Hero awards for their efforts in helping the food bank during the pandemic.

“Every time we called they picked up the phone. The group that never asked for any kind of recognition, they only asked that we take the resources they were able to share,” said Debbie Espinosa, FIND Food Bank president/CEO.

Among the honorees was Brian Kaiser who handles the state’s Cal Fresh program which helps FIND Food Bank with federal and state programs that provide nutritional assistance.

“To be recognized by her [Debbie Espinosa] and her organization [FIND Food Bank] feels really good. I have so many good things to say about the good things they do in this community,” Kaiser said.

FIND has been helping the Coachella Valley since the 1980s. During the pandemic, when things really took a turn, Espinosa says many of the awardees stepped in to help.

“The first thing we heard is they needed help because of the issues related to the amount that were coming. So we worked with FIND Food Bank and state of California. As the county, we are the link to the state for any California national guard personnel that come in,” said Mark Bassett, Riverside County Emergency Services manager.

The demand for food assistance increased 110-percent at the height of the pandemic.

With FIND Food Bank and its several partners who stepped up to the plate, 190,000 people were given food security and people like Rosie who lost her job were given hope again.

“It helped me out tremendously. those 11 months were very hard," said Rosie, a FIND Food Bank client.

News Channel  3 was also one of the 13 awardees at Friday's Guardian event for our continuous reports that help get the word out about the several food drives FIND Food Bank hosts.