With Thanksgiving is only one week away, donations have been trickling in to the Santa Barbara County Foodbank in Santa Maria.
“Well this is a time of reflection, and we have had a lot of blessings in our life and it’s just a time to give back,” said Signe Smith, after donating five turkeys.
But the amount of turkey donations is still not as much as the Foodbank needs.
“We’ve only received 500 of the 3,000 [turkeys] that we’re looking to receive this year and the deadline for receiving those is Friday so we’re in desperate need of getting more turkeys in soon,” said Paul Wilkins, Director of Operations for the Foodbank.
These turkeys and food items go to the Foodbank’s 300 partner agencies across Santa Barbara County.
“They use it this time of year for special events that they do, but also special feeding – they generally do see an influx of people especially as the season turns cold,” Wilkins said.
The Foodbank is also working on overcoming another hurdle – losing one of its four trucks in an accident last month.
“We’re looking to double our distribution and volume and without that truck, it would have severely limited our capabilities to meet that goal. Thankfully, Aera Energy has stepped us to helped to provide us funds to rent a truck in the interim—we’ll be able to have this truck for the next three months,” said Wilkins.
The organization says it’s unclear what’s causing the decline in food donations, but it hopes more people get into the spirit of giving and find it in their hearts to donate.
“It’s even more of a motivation to give more than what we were planning and it’s all good,” Smith said.
Friday, November 16th is the last day for turkey donations at the Foodbank, a deadline set so workers would have enough time to deliver the turkeys to various organizations across the county before Thanksgiving.
