Find Food Bank hosts largest monthly food distribution of the year in Indio

Find Food Bank held one of its largest distributions of the year on Saturday morning. It took place one day after the organization kicked off its annual telethon fundraising event on Friday.

“We have a here on the third Saturday of the month," said Pricilla Salcedo, the Associate Director of Community Impact. "And that's from eight to nine in the morning every time. We have our wonderful volunteers here are helping out, and we couldn't do this without without them.” One of the distributions, or mobile markets as they're called, was held inside the parking lot at Shadow Hills High School.

More than 300 families in need lined up in a drive through fashion, the line spanning all the way into the street. They were able to pick up around 50 pounds of none-perishable food items per vehicle.

"We have our 'Senior Box Program'. That's for seniors 60 and over. So in that box, we get non perishables dry goods, canned goods, fruit juice, vegetables, etc,", said Salcedo. "And then we also have our other programs that are all tailored to different groups."

Volunteers were up early preparing for the big day. One volunteer, coming all the way from Canada to help out.

“Oh, it's been busy. It's been very steady," said Lorraine Berube. "What we do is we have stations with different foods that we we give to people. And so they come lined up and we distribute the food in the trunks in in the backseat.”

Lorraine considers herself a snowbird, and says serving around the Coachella Valley is something she felt led to do.

"When we got started coming down south, we looked for an opportunity to volunteer and we found this Find Food Bank, and we love it," said Berube. "Hunger is unnecessary. And I know economics are really hard, but everybody deserves food. Food is a human right.”

News Channel Three teamed up with the Find Food Bank on Friday night as the organization kicked off its annual Telethon fundraising event. By Friday night, more than $290,000 had been raised.

“So thank you guys, for your hard work and all that you guys do to support us," said Salcedo. "We truly appreciate that. And secondly, we also like to thank the 'Berger Impact Foundation' for their generous donation." The fundraising telethon will run through Sunday night.

The Find Food Bank is always looking for volunteers, so if you would like to help serve valley residents click here.