Red Cross awards Santa Barbara County Foodbank with Good Neighbor Partnership Award
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- The American Red Cross honors the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County with a special award on Tuesday.
The Red Cross awarded the Good Neighbor Partnership Award to the local organization for their mission and service in providing healthy food and proactive disaster meal planning for the community.
The Good Neighbor Partnership Award recognizes a member or team from the community who have made significant contributions to the American Red Cross. The nominee must:
- Demonstrated exceptional initiative in identifying and meeting a community need through Red Cross services.
- Reflected a positive, visible impact in the community for the American Red Cross.
- Encouraged and promoted excellence in each other and created a working environment that inspires others to strive for and achieve superior work performance through paid and volunteer partnerships.
The Foodbank has had a long partnership with the Red Cross in providing essential disaster relief including delivering food to Red Cross Shelters.
Red Cross Disaster Program Manager Jessica Hodge stresses how the Foodbank has become a lifeline to many during the pandemic. “The Foodbank has demonstrated exceptional initiative in identifying and meeting a community need for a county-wide disaster feeding plan, and they did it by working hand-in-hand with the Red Cross every step of the way."
After the Montecito Debris Flow in 2018, the Foodbank began a proactive disaster food planning initiative to help Santa Barbara County become more prepared.
The plan required more than a year-long process of working with community partners to write a County Disaster Feeding Plan and establish a Feeding Task Force.
The task force includes the Foodbank, Salvation Army, the Red Cross and many others.
