Foodbank of Santa Barbara County extends free food distribution for federal employees

One in four are food insecure and that’s on an average day. Now add thousands into the mix not getting paid for over a month.

Although federal workers are starting to finally get paychecks, the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, along with the folks they serve, are still uncertain about the future.

The Foodbank sprang into action earlier this month to help fill the void during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. So how did this affect out community resources and where do we go from here?

“We’ve done about 375 families countywide countywide that translates into about 1200 individual people and about 16,000 pounds that we’ve distributed so far,” said Paul Wilkins, Director of Operations, Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.

That’s a 5% increase in the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County’s daily need.

Wilkins says over half of the federal workers seeking assistance during the 35-day government shutdown came from Lompoc.

“That’s a considerable amount when you look at at the standpoint of the people that were impacted. Again the outreach part of it was the most challenging part of this,” said Wilkins.

If a shutdown happens again, The Foodbank will be ready to resume emergency food distributions for furloughed employees.

“The thing that would be difficult long-term is if another shutdown drags on into March or into April, that’s where we’re going to need additional support from the community and our national partners,” said Wilkins.

Foodbank officials say if programs like Cal Fresh or SNAP are affected, they’ll have to turn to community food drives to sustain normal operations.

“This is definitely in excess of what we normally see because these individuals just because these individuals aren’t what we consider our normal clients,” said Wilkins.

All three Foodbank of Santa Barbara County locations will be extending free food distribution for those impacted by the shutdown through February 8th.