Feeding Petaluma's hungry

<p>Some 8,000 Petalumans would have gone hungry this year if it weren't for the Redwood Empire Food Bank.</p><p>That's why food bank executive director David Goodman is hoping Petalumans will be willing to donate about $300,000 — 11 percent of the $2.5 million needed — to complete the renovation of the food bank's new 60,000-square-foot warehouse near the Sonoma County Airport. Eight thousand Petalumans is about 11 percent of the 78,000 people the food bank fed in 2011.</p><p>“That's their fair share,” Goodman said of the $300,000.</p><p>The $2.5 million the food bank needs to raise by the end of the year is the final chunk of the $9 million it costs to purchase and equip the new facility, which will accommodate an ever-increasing need for supplemental food in Sonoma County for the next 25 years.</p><p>Without the new warehouse, Goodman said, 2012 would be the first time in the food bank's 24-year history that it couldn't to provide enough food for the county's growing number of “food insecure” families. This year the food bank reached full capacity at its main headquarters in north Santa Rosa plus three additional rented spaces.</p><p>The food bank is the only organization of its kind distributing food directly — and through 149 other organizations — to hungry people in Sonoma County and north to the Oregon border. According to Goodman, the number of people the food bank serves has risen 11 percent in the last two years.</p><p>“And this will continue for a long time to come,” he said.</p><p>Currently, the Redwood Empire Food Bank provides approximately 13 million pounds of food — or 10 million meals — each year. And people in Petaluma eat about one million of those meals.</p><p>The network in Petaluma that offers food boxes and prepared meals spreads out like the spokes of a giant wheel. Some of the programs require income eligibility, others are for targeted groups, like seniors or children, and some serve anybody who feels they need extra food or a hot-cooked meal.</p><p>Pastor Tim Kellgren, of Elim Lutheran Church on Petaluma's west side, coordinates one of those spokes. It's an interfaith association of nearly a dozen churches and synagogues that hands out weekly boxes of food at three locations. These giveaways include: Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at the United Church of Christ, Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Lucchesi Park, and Thursday evening, 5:30 p.m. in the little triangular park near Elim Church and the Petaluma Creamery.</p><p>A majority of the food comes from the Redwood Empire Food Bank, which Kellgren describes as “The source — the mother of food distribution in our county.” </p><p>Other sources for the food boxes include Petaluma Bounty's farm, produce gleaned from other farms and backyard gardens, and extra food collected by the Petaluma Kitchen.</p><p>The Petaluma Kitchen, run by the Committee on the Shelterless, cooks up fresh meals daily for the hungry, and also distributes four hundred 40-pound boxes of food weekly through an emergency food assistance program funded by the federal government. About 20 percent of the food served at the kitchen and a big part of the food in the boxes comes from the food bank.</p><p>“They do a fabulous job. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without them,” said COTS food program director Elizabeth Hale, who spoke glowingly of “the really terrific fresh produce” the food bank is able to provide for the food boxes.</p><p>For seniors in need, Petaluma People's Services distributes weekly grocery boxes through its food program that also includes Meals on Wheels and the Senior Café lunch program. Of course, food from REFB shows up there, too.</p><p>And then, there are the hungry children at the eight Boys and Girls Clubs in Petaluma, who receive daily snacks all year round and lunches in the summer, provided by REFB. The after-school snacks are part of the Boys and Girls Club program, but the summer lunches are available to all Petaluma children under age 18. </p><p>“Every Friday morning, a big truck comes (from the Redwood Empire Food Bank) and delivers the snacks to our Lucchesi center,” said Kim Griselle, an area director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of southern Sonoma County and Marin.</p><p>The food bank also provides groceries for the Salvation Army food giveaway, and has eight programs of its own in Petaluma. One of these programs, Farm Fresh Pantry, is drop-in and requires only identification as a resident of Petaluma, but no proof of income. The sites and times for Farm Fresh Pantry are every Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Park Lane Apartments on Magnolia and 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Round Walk Village on North McDowell Boulevard.</p><p>For more information about all of the supplemental food programs in Petaluma call the Redwood Empire Food Bank at 523-7900. To donate for the completion of the food bank's new warehouse, visit the website at www.refb.org. </p><p>(Contact Lois Pearlman at argus@arguscourier.com)</p>