'Heartbroken': Five Bay Area food pantry delivery trucks sabotaged - SF Gate

By Clover 05 Aug, 2020 Post a Comment

'Heartbroken': Five Bay Area food pantry delivery trucks sabotaged - SF Gate

'Heartbroken': Five Bay Area food pantry delivery trucks sabotaged - SF Gate
'We believe that access to food is a right not a privilege,' The Love Fridge helping people find and donate healthy foods - WLS-TV
Direct-to-consumer cat food startup Smalls raises $9M - TechCrunch
Food 'angels' support hungry kids through pandemic - School News Network
Kraft mac and cheese is now a breakfast food, apparently - CNN

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 11:31 AM PDT

By Amanda Bartlett, SFGATE

Updated 11:31 am PDT, Wednesday, August 5, 2020

FILE - Volunteers from the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank line up in a parking lot adjacent to Oracle Park to hand out boxes of food to lined up cars. Four of the food bank's delivery trucks at the Marin facility were vandalized early Monday morning, their fuel tanks filled with an "acid-like detergent" that prevented them from running, according to spokesperson Keely Hopkins.
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FILE - Volunteers from the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank line up in a parking lot adjacent to Oracle Park to hand out boxes of food to lined up cars. Four of the food bank's delivery trucks at the Marin
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Photo: Blair Heagerty / SFGate

Photo: Blair Heagerty / SFGate

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FILE - Volunteers from the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank line up in a parking lot adjacent to Oracle Park to hand out boxes of food to lined up cars. Four of the food bank's delivery trucks at the Marin facility were vandalized early Monday morning, their fuel tanks filled with an "acid-like detergent" that prevented them from running, according to spokesperson Keely Hopkins.

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Photo: Blair Heagerty / SFGate

LATEST Aug. 5, 9:22 a.m. A fifth vehicle — one of the replacement delivery trucks — was also vandalized, according to Hopkins. This story has been updated to reflect that information.

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At least 60 people lined up at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Marin City on Monday morning, waiting for a food pantry delivery truck that was nowhere in sight.

Two and a half hours after its scheduled arrival time, a replacement truck showed up. By then, pantry staff and volunteers had discovered that the fuel tanks of five of the trucks scheduled to go out for delivery that day had been filled with an "acid-like detergent" that prevented them from running properly, according to Keely Hopkins, a spokesperson for the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. Hopkins suspects the vandalism occurred early that morning.

Representatives from the facility raced to employ backup rental trucks to meet the rest of the scheduled deliveries that day. Services continued as normal on Tuesday, though it remains unclear who was responsible for tampering with the trucks, which are currently under maintenance.

"We don't know how long repairs will take or how much it will cost," Hopkins told SFGATE on Tuesday afternoon. "Everyone was really heartbroken and in shock, frankly."

That same day, hundreds of cars queued up at Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco for the nonprofit organization's second drive-thru food bank pop-up event. The local food bank has experienced a surge in demand related to the pandemic, now serving 64,000 families a week — doubled from 32,000 prior to the shelter-in-place order and economic shutdown.

Elderly individuals, especially, have benefited from the food bank's delivery services, including their Pantry at Home program, which serves 12,000 people each week.

MORE: 'We've never seen anything like this': First drive-thru food pantry opens in SF

Food bank staff filed a police report and are working with law enforcement to investigate the crime. Another drive-thru food bank event is scheduled to take place at Northgate Mall in San Rafael on Wednesday morning from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"We just want to reassure our participants that programming will continue as usual, and we appreciate the community's support during these times," said Hopkins.

Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE culture reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett

'We believe that access to food is a right not a privilege,' The Love Fridge helping people find and donate healthy foods - WLS-TV

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 03:12 PM PDT

CHICAGO,IL (WLS) -- Colorful Refrigerators are popping along some sidewalks on the city's West Side- but they aren't for sale. These refrigerators are called Love Fridges and they're being place to help supply families in need with nutritious foods.

"I noticed that through my feed these community fridges were popping up within New York and decided to go to one and stocked it. And I asked how can I get down? And that I was going to my home city of Chicago and wanted to make it happen over there," said Ramon Radius, founder of Love Fridges Chicago.

Radius, a photographer, said he reached out to as many people he knew to make it happen. So far there are three current community fridges running. Two in Little Village, one in Bridgeport. Everything is donation based, from the food to the refrigerators. Neighbors can take what they need, and leave what they can.

"The recent pandemic has highlighted, it's definitely highlighted inequalities in our food system in Chicago. So we've been seeking to establish community refrigerators throughout the city especially in areas where access to food is particularly challenging," said Lisa Armstrong, one of the organizers for The Love Fridge Chicago.

The Love Fridge is working with local community gardens and organizations that donate fresh fruits and vegetables. Radius said the sky is the limit of how many community fridges they'll open up on the South and West Side communities of Chicago.

Direct-to-consumer cat food startup Smalls raises $9M - TechCrunch

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 06:28 AM PDT

While dog owners have plenty of direct-to-consumer options if they want to order pet food online, we haven't seen a similar wave of startups for cats. But that may be starting to change.

Earlier this year, I wrote about Cat Person, a startup backed by Harry's Labs offering a variety of cat care products, including food. And Smalls, a cat food startup that launched in 2018, is announcing today that it has raised $9 million in Series A funding.

Co-founders Matt Michaelson (CEO) and Calvin Bohn (COO) said that it's not simply a matter of taking the D2C dog food model and applying it to cats.

"The traditional sort of MO for companies in the pet care space is to do everything for dogs first," then expand into cat products, Bohn said.

Michaelson argued that this means companies "often overlooked the nutritional needs of cat." In particular, he said, "We found that we needed a much broader range of products to really succeed. Cats are picky because they're apex predators."

So Smalls offers a variety of food options, including what it says is fresh, human-grade chicken and beef; freeze-dried chicken, turkey and duck; plus other treats (and non-food products like litter and toys).

Image Credits: Smalls

Michaelson and Bohn started out by cooking the food in the kitchen of their New York City apartments, then moved into what was then known as Brooklyn Foodworks. Smalls now manufactures its cat food in a facility in Chicago.

They acknowledged that the cost can be a bit higher than what cat owners are used to paying — the exact comparison will depend on the brand and quality you currently buy, but after taking a quick quiz on the Smalls website, I was offered subscription plans that cost around $3 or $4 per cat per day. Michaelson noted that "retention is not correlated to income" (so Smalls customers aren't just wealthy cat owners), and he argued that investing in healthy food for your cat could save money down the road.

"We don't have studies to say that yet, but at the same time, you would naturally assume eating better food is going to be a good investment in yourself," he said.

Bohn added that when cat owners switch to Smalls, they quickly notice the difference: "Within weeks, their cats were sleeping better at night, their coats were more lustrous, their stool smelled better." (Journalists who tried it out seem to agree.)

The Series A brings Smalls' total funding to $12 million. It was led by Left Lane Capital (whose partner Jason Fiedler previously invested in The Farmer's Dog), with participation from Founder Collective and Companion Fund.

"While we've seen a proliferation of highly successful healthy dog food brands, the cat food market has remained completely ignored," Fiedler said in a statement. "Smalls has successfully developed a brand, product mix, supply chain and customer experience that is specifically optimized for cats that no one else has."

Michaelson said Smalls currently has "several thousand" active subscribers, up 4x year-over-year. And while the pandemic has created some supply chain challenges, it also led to "a huge rise in pet adoption," as well as convincing some owners that they should look for alternatives to their local pet store.

"Because we're seeing this big movement towards the direct-to-consumer side of things with COVID, it's really an opportunity to lean into that and grow faster," he said.

Food 'angels' support hungry kids through pandemic - School News Network

Posted: 05 Aug 2020 04:40 AM PDT

FeedingFamilies3 — Monica Collier, Godfey/Lee director of Dining Services, stands with boxes of food and a weekend treat bag donated by Kids Food Basket packed with healthy offerings.

They work all across Kent County, guardian angels with peanut butter on their hands and crumbs on their shirtsleeves, who labor quickly and quietly week after week so that kids remain fed during a pandemic that continues to create chaos.

To know that even one kid in our midst goes to sleep hungry is unconscionable. And that's what drives them, these unsung heroes who prepare meals daily – in some cases thousands of them – for students enrolled in schools across Kent ISD.

"When I came to Kenowa Hills five years ago, my first task was to plan a Maranda Park Party at Berlin Raceway," recalls a then-overwhelmed Peg Panici, who directs food service for Kenowa Schools. "I had no idea that my last three months I'd be doing a Maranda Park Party every day!"

Panici is retiring June 30, which will be a bittersweet way to go out since she hasn't been able to commune up-close with many kids or staff members since schools throughout Michigan were vacated by students complying with the governor's order that took effect this past mid-March.

"Still," she says, "I know we're serving a purpose. And seeing the smiles on their faces when they come to pick up their lunches makes us realize we're doing the right thing."

Panici and her team of fellow employees and volunteers recently surpassed the 150,000 mark – meals which are prepared and then delivered along existing school bus routes.

Note from the writer
Many of us take access to food for granted. That all changed for me some years ago when I penned a column for The Grand Rapids Press, describing what it was like to go without anything to eat for three consecutive days and nights, relying on liquids only.

Not only was it difficult, but I felt saddened and depressed – not only because I wasn't eating, but because I finally had a visceral connection (albeit temporary) to people who didn't do this as an experiment, but instead dealt with hunger as a matter of course. Some years later, while in Zambia on a freelance assignment, I saw the effects of hunger in even greater proportion. For too many people worldwide, every day is a challenge to find and consume healthy food.

So it gladdened me to talk to people with generous hearts for the following School News Network column, because it shines the spotlight on some pretty special people doing good works because it's the right thing to do. And while this column features just a few of these people, please know there is an army of staff and volunteers with them providing food. If you happen to know one of them, please let them know we're grateful.

Godfrey-Lee Public Schools are on a similar pace, where their director of dining services, Monica Collier, relies on a staff of 17 to turn out food that is available three days weekly at a trio of sites – the high school, elementary school and early childhood center.

From left, sisters Page Yancy, Kenowa Hills High School sophomore, and Sonnet, a 2020 graduate, practice teamwork while counting the milk cartons

A former bar manager at an area restaurant and assistant food service director for another area district, Collier says that "My staff feels so rewarded by doing this," adding that "I'm so proud to be part of the Godfrey-Lee system, where we've been backed up all the way by our administration. And it's just great to be able to serve our community in such a vital way."

What struck me in speaking with every food service employee contacted for this column were two things: One, their level of dedication to kids and their families. And two, how they adapted so quickly in the wake of the pandemic to create hybrid systems that provided a seamless transition into making meals available.

"We were serving meals the first Monday after the stay-at-home order went into effect that Friday," says Jennifer Laninga, supervisor of nutrition services for Grand Rapids Public Schools. "In the beginning, it was overwhelming, working in a completely unknown territory, including having to determine and work out of emergency feeding sites.

"Luckily, we began with a couple of apartment complexes until we could get established in the larger schools. Now, we're serving meals at four sites: Sibley Elementary, City Middle High, San Juan Diego Academy and Ottawa Hills High School."

"Last week, we served more than 12,000 meals," GRPS Food Service Director Phillip Greene noted on a day in early June. "On one recent Monday, during the course of three hours, we did 6,500 meals."

"Our people – and that includes volunteers – have been amazing," says Laninga. "There were a few wrinkles in the beginning, but we all work together, and it's been a great experience."

Deanna Mockerman picks up a weekend treat Bag and lunches, donated by Kids Food Basket, for the next car that pulls up

At Kentwood Public Schools, Chef Mo Shamali serves as child nutrition director, in place there nearly three decades. When he got word the schools would shut down that Friday in March, his first reaction was "We need to continue feeding the kids, no matter what," and remembered thinking "We will do it, and if anything needs to be fixed, we will fix it.

"One thousand kids or ten thousand, we will be ready."

Like most other districts, students pick up what amounts to seven meals weekly by visiting sites two or three days a week, scoring weekend meals on Thursday or Friday, depending on the district's schedule. Those picking up lunches line up in cars, and in virtually every case, simply convey to a worker how many lunches they need, and they're loaded into the vehicle with minimum human contact.

No questions asked.

"We are concerned with humanity," says Chef Mo. "And we're not here to ask who, but to provide a service."

For Panici, retiring means spending more evenings enjoying the sunsets on Spring Lake. She says there will be more than a few moments spent in retrospect. "It's been so rewarding," she says. "And I think we've done some good."