Santa Barbara County Foodbank pushes for more food donations with new large-scale drop-off box as federal programs taper

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The new stainless steel industrial looking bin is one of a kind for the Santa Barbara County Foodbank.

"We are installing one of these at both of our warehouse facilities in order to facilitate food donation drop off throughout our operational day," said chief operations officer Paul Wilkins of the Santa Barbara County Foodbank.

As some emergency federal programs are starting to taper, managers with foodbank say more donations are needed.

"I know it scared a lot of people to come out and help opening up but now with regulations opening up we’re excited just to have more people come out and help the community and donate," said office manager Ashley Harrington of the Santa Barbara County Foodbank.

The best part about this new bin is you can come by to drop off donations any time of the day.

"So excited about this new donation box we really want to make it easy on people getting the food here they can really affect hundred to talk thousands of lives in our community so we’re so grateful," said director of community programs and education Lacey Baldiviez of the Santa Barbara County Foodbank.

And it’s easy to use.

Previously people had to wait for food drives to clean their pantries, or visit the foodbank during business hours.

But not anymore.

"It’s secure and available 24 hours a day we used to only have the donations available during operating hours so now anytime day or night," said Baldiviez.

The new bin is expected to become operational in about a week.

If you would like to help the foodbank, you can log on to: https://foodbanksbc.org/