Hard Hit Hospitality Workers Get Drive-Up Food Assistance

Share with Friends

In tourist-centered Sonoma County, thousands of hospitality workers have been especially hard-hit by the coronavirus emergency, with many suddenly losing their jobs and livelihoods in March as the economy shut down.

But on Friday, the Redwood Empire Food Bank partnered with Sonoma County Vintners to target that group with food boxes, supplies that will help families cope in the coming weeks until restaurants, hotels and wineries fully reopen and jobs return.

The morning distribution in the parking lot of American Ag Credit quickly drew a line of cars, who were served by a small army of volunteers consisting of Food Bank staff and Sonoma County Vintners volunteers.

Although the Redwood Empire Food Bank’s distributions are open to all, this effort specifically targeted hospitality workers, many of whom have never before asked for help.

The Food Bank recently began receiving additional food shipments as part of the Department of Agriculture’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, or CFAP. Those supplies help shore up producers while getting food products to the community through distributions like this one.

Redwood Empire Food Bank is currently seeing high demand for food assistance, estimated to be anywhere from 80-200 percent higher than before the coronavirus emergency began.