Rockridge Food Drive Needs You
by Ronnie Spitzer
The Rockridge Food Drive has been up and running for one week with barrels at the Rockridge Library, Market Hall Cheese Shop, and Claremont Middle School (outside the main office). The Market Hall barrel is already full and being replaced with an empty one tomorrow! Final barrel pickup is the week of December 8.
Our virtual food drive is also doing great — the $2,000 funding match by RCPC has been increased with a $5,000 match from the College Avenue Presbyterian Church and $1,000 from two Chabot Road neighbors. So we are now matching up to $8,000, meaning we can donate up to $16,000 to the Food Bank! Here is the link to donate virtually: donate.accfb.org/vfd/RockridgeGives
Please contribute any way you can. While the government shut down is finally over, there will likely be delays and possibly only partial SNAP benefits in the near-term. Thank you for your generosity!
More information: You may have heard that the government shut-down put an end to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding on Nov. 1. Even though the program has a $200 million reserve, the Trump administration is refusing to disperse those funds. This means that thousands of Alameda County residents, particularly children, will be harmed by the loss of food stamps that would normally have allowed them to continue purchasing food.
To help in this crisis, the Rockridge Community Planning Council (RCPC) is spearheading a food drive in Rockridge to benefit the Alameda County Community Food Bank and will match up to $2,000 in total donations. With your help, we can potentially raise $4,000 for the Alameda County Community) Food Bank.
The drive runs Nov. 6–Dec. 8 and will be both virtual and in person. If donating in person, you can bring any type of nonperishable food. Items such as canned meats, peanut butter, mac and cheese, soups, dry beans and rice, canned fruits and vegetables, cereal and granola bars are in particularly high demand. For in-person donations, RCPC has enlisted three fantastic partners to help make this effort possible; Market Hall, the Rockridge Library and Claremont Middle School will each be hosting a Food Bank barrel. The Market Hall barrel will be located at the College Avenue entrance near the new cheese counter and the bakery, the Rockridge Library barrel will be in the front lobby and the Claremont Middle School barrel will be just inside the main entrance at the corner of College Avenue and Miles Avenue. In addition, a fourth wonderful partner, Trader Joe’s, is kickstarting the action with a donation of $100 worth of nonperishable food items.
The virtual food drive will allow you to donate funds directly to the Food Bank — with the added benefit of being tax deductible. Direct donations are particularly helpful because they allow the Food Bank to buy in bulk for economies of scale.
Here is what the Alameda County Community Food Bank says about the current government shut down and SNAP cuts: “During the last shutdown we supported approximately 1,200 federal employees — including TSA, Coast Guard, FBP and IRS — with regular deliveries of healthy nonperishables and bags of fresh produce, directly to their places of employment. It was our goal then and is our goal now to ensure they have the most convenient access to nourishment.
Spikes in hunger like this, however temporary, mean more reliance on food banks for families to meet their basic needs. As an emergency response organization, we remain prepared to help in these times, and that requires tapping into our reserves at a time when we’re already deficit spending.”
The barrels were delivered to our partner locations the week of Nov. 6 and the virtual food drive is live, so you can get started right away! Please be generous so we can help alleviate hunger in Oakland during these trying times.
