Submitted by Sunny Baker – November 18, 2019
Hunger can happen to anyone. There are several places, agencies and organizations that help throughout the year, but Pacific Pantry’s shelves are nearly bare for the holidays as City of Crescent City Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding ended last month.
What is Pacific Pantry and what do they do?
Located at 494 Pacific Ave in Crescent City at the Family Resource Center, the Pacific Pantry serves 600 households a month. Each household can visit once a month and choose a number of items based on households size. They offer free food boxes to those in our community who are in need. Individuals and households are welcome to use their free food box services once per month.
They are open:
Thursdays: 2pm-6pm
Fridays: 2pm-6pm
Saturdays: 10am-2pm
It takes approximately $15 to supply a family with food per visit. In order to ensure Pantry doors remain open to Del Norte’s many food insecure individuals and families for the holidays and beyond, the Family Resource Center of the Redwoods (FRC) and Del Norte and Tribal Lands Community Food Council (DNATL CFC) are launching a multifaceted fundraising campaign to raise $25,000 by the close of 2019.
To help support their efforts there will be a fundraising event:
Empty Bowls Fundraising Dinner
Saturday, Dec 14th 4:00-7:00
Attendees purchase a handmade ceramic bowl and get to sample a variety of homemade soups, with funds going directly to the pantry. We will be accepting donations of ceramic bowls, homemade soups, raffle items including services, and volunteers for the fundraising dinner. Please contact us to get involved!
alanctot@frcredwoods.org
Have time to volunteer?
Support the Pacific Pantry by volunteering time. They need help collecting food donations, running the pantry, processing and packaging food donations and more. For further information, please call 707-464-0955.
They lost the funding because they did not spend it in the time allowed. This in part was due to a turn over in staff and a lack of support needed. It is sad. The County should have stepped in and helped them keep the grant.
My understanding is that the Family Resource Center took over the CDBG grant that the city gave to Rural Human Services for this project. Because Community Development Block Grants are competitive and must be applied for yearly, they tend to give funding to new recipients each year. So the Family Resource Center needs to submit grants to a wide range of funders in order to keep the program going.
The editor of the Crescent City Times, due to her service on the City Council, may be able to provide clarification on how CDBG grants work.
Why did they lose the funding they had?