When the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit hard in early March, the number of people coming to Gleaners for food assistance tripled nearly overnight. At the same time, we knew that with the direct correlation between food insecurity and health, those children and families we serve would be at high risk for contracting this virus.
Joe Slater, Gleaners’ COO/CFO, called a quick meeting on March 9 to talk about changes that we needed to make now to protect our clients, staff, and volunteers. “Businesses began to send employees home, volunteer groups were canceling, and we were just learning that social distancing was key to containing the spread and flattening the curve,” he said.
That afternoon, Gleaners staff came together to quickly pack emergency food boxes for distribution at the Community Cupboard distribution scheduled for the next day. At 10 am on March 10, we opened up the line to a drive-through, no-contact distribution, a concept that was quickly adapted to mobile pantries and agency distributions throughout our 21-county service area.
“The thought of having hundreds of people sitting in close quarters in our reception area waiting to shop just was not something we wanted to do,” said Slater. Those first few distributions occurred in a drive-through garage at the Gleaners warehouse. An upcoming rainy day forced the location to move to what we call the chute – a long indoor drive where trucks are parked overnight, and where food pantries load food for their own distributions. That set up was so successful that it continues today.
Currently, the Community Cupboard is serving nearly 4,000 families per week, nearly 3x the number served prior to the pandemic. With rent and eviction moratoriums and pandemic unemployment assistance ending in July, we’re mindful that need could quickly spike.