Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino to Respond to Government Shut Down by Assisting Families of Federal Employees

Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino to Respond to Government Shut Down by Assisting Families of Federal Employees

Food Distribution Taking Place Saturday, January 19 in Ontario, CA

Riverside, CA – January 15, 2019 – Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino (FARSB), will help host an event to provide food and resources to federal government employees during the continuing government shut down. That distribution, through the collaboration with a local church, will be held on Saturday, January 19 at the Love Chapel, located at 229 E. Phillips Ave. in Ontario, CA from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

The event was inspired last week by the grassroots effort of a single community member – Pastor Daryl Jackson of Ontario. FARSB CEO, Stephanie Otero, had already issued an internal memo to staff last week reminding management and worker’s at the Inland Empire’s Regional food bank, to be prepared to meet the additional needs of those among the 800,000 federal employees affected by the government shutdown who are living or working in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

Before that memo was even read by all FARSB employees, Pastor Jackson, of Love Chapel in Ontario reached out to FARSB to help his church members come up with a solution. “Daryl reached out via an email to share that he was very concerned about the Federal employees living in West San Bernardino County. In particular, he was concerned about those who are not members of his church that work in and around the Ontario Airport,” said Otero.

Otero, a resident herself of West San Bernardino County, responded immediately scheduling the delivery of food for the Saturday distribution and preparing additional extra emergency food boxes for families of Federal workers who might stop by the FARSB Warehouse located at 2950-A Jefferson Street in Riverside. For regular food assistance, Otero encourages all community members in need to contact FARSB so that they can be directed to a food pantry located in their own neighborhood.

Jackson states that although he has the desire to assist this particular group, once this community issue is resolved, he wants to start an ongoing distribution at his church to assist others in his community in need. Love Chapel, is already taking steps to become one of more than 450 agency partners that FARSB provides food, resources and support for on a daily basis.

In the Inland Empire, more than 800,000 people struggle with food insecurity and may not know where they’ll find their next meal. That number includes one in 4 children.

To learn more about FARSB and other ways you can get involved and support the Inland Empire community, please visit www.FeedingIE.org .

About Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino

Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino began in 1980 as Survive Food Bank in response to the increasing concern about the dual problems of hunger and food waste in the Inland Empire. Today, FARSB is the primary source of food for over 450 nonprofit organizations, distributing over 2.5 million pounds of food monthly to emergency food pantries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, high-need elementary schools, halfway houses, senior centers, residential treatment centers, shelters for the abused, after school programs and group homes. More than 125,000 men, women and children each month rely on the food bank’s distribution center to make ends meet.