Volunteers help fill food donation needs as pandemic continues

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Five month into the COVID-19 pandemic and the Food Bank of Santa Barbara County said there's still a great need for food distributions. And their demand is twice what it was this time last year.

Jordan Jenkins is the food bank's community engagement coordinator. She said with some businesses still closed and the pandemic still affecting our community's economy, the need for food is still high. And volunteers are needed to continue to get food to those in need.

"Since our crisis response early March we've distributed over eight million pounds of food which is like I said is about double what we would normally be doing," said Jenkins.

On Tuesday about two dozen volunteers helped the Food Bank of Santa Barbara pack over a thousand boxes of food in Goleta. Volunteers were from Kate Farms, Air National Guard and the Red Cross.

Elle Ingalls is the marketing coordinator for Kate Farms. She said it's important for her company to give back. "We specifically wanted to help out the Santa Barbara Food Bank because this is our home base, we have an office in Boston and Santa Barbara, we started here. So to be able to help out our local community directly is really impactful and we're all here to help."