FOOD BANK UPDATE: Emergency Food Support Continues

kschwed
1 hour ago
3 min read

Emergency Food Support Continues Through Effects of Federal Shutdown

Over the past few weeks, our community has shown an INCREDIBLE outpouring of generosity through volunteerism, food, and monetary donations! ❤️

THANK YOU! Your kindness is making a real difference for local families facing one of the toughest seasons we’ve seen since Covid.

But even with this generosity, the need keeps climbing.

Right now, we are serving 120–130 households each day - nearly double what we were seeing just a few months ago. That’s 2,000 families every month – impacting over 5,000 individuals including senior citizens, children, and parents in need - across Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Citrus Heights, and Folsom.

Each family receives about 50 pounds of groceries, enough to help feed their household for two weeks. That means we are distributing roughly 25,000 pounds of food every week, compared to about 18,000 before this recent surge.

In October alone, our amazing team of volunteer drivers helped pick up 53,819 pounds of food from local grocery partners like Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, WinCo of Folsom, and Raley’s, we also had an influx of Food Donations thanks to our INCREDIBLE Community in the amount of 12,000 pounds of food; however, with our huge increase in families, we are distributing roughly 25,000 pounds of food every week, so those numbers decrease quickly.

This is part of how we grew low so quickly on our food staples even after the amazing Fall Food Drive in early October. Family receives the pantry essential of peanut butter in each distribution, so that’s 2,000 jars of peanut butter we are distributing in one month alone!

We’re doing everything we can to keep up, including storing extra food from the Fall Food Drive, like canned veggies which we had a huge influx of, to help us make it through the early months of the new year as well.

We don’t know how long the SNAP crisis will last. While benefits are partially resuming for November 2025 using emergency funds, recipients are expected to receive only half their normal amount — with payments facing delays of weeks or even months.

We’re preparing for the continued Covid-level demand through November and December.

How You Can Help:

🍽️ Donate Food - Most needed items include: Peanut butter, Cereal, Ramen, and Side Dishes (Mac & Cheese, Rice-A-Roni & Pasta Roni, boxed potatoes, boxed pancake mix). No canned veggies are needed right now — we are stocked!
🌟 Grocery Bags Needed: We are in need of reusable or plastic grocery bags for distributions. Right now we are using 2,400 grocery bags a week!
❤️ Volunteer: Sorting, stocking, or driving - every role matters in keeping food moving efficiently to families! Sign up at ovfofb.org/volunteer
💵 Give Financially: Donations allow us to purchase items needed to keep our shelves full, right now we are working to use the recent funds donated to purchase dairy and meat products, that cannot be donated by the public. These funds also help us to continue to keep up on maintenance of our facility and grocery truck 👉 ovfofb.org/donate

If you or someone you know is in need of food assistance:

We serve Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Folsom, and Citrus Heights residents.
If you are in need of food assistance outside of our service area, visit https://www.sacramentofoodbank.org/find-food or Call 2-1-1 to find a pantry near you.

❤️ Together We Flourish

We know many of you have already given - THANK YOU! Your continued support ensures that no neighbor goes hungry. Together, we’re keeping hope alive and food on every table!

With deep gratitude ❤️- Andrea & The OVFO Food Bank Team