By Sonoma Mayor Logan Harvey
The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered businesses and put millions out of work throughout the nation and throughout our Valley. Sonoma’s work force is especially impacted for many reasons, but predominate among them is our hospitality-focused economy and the number of immigrant and undocumented workers that reside in our community.
The hospitality industry was the first to really feel the hit of this crisis and we continue to hear about layoffs throughout our local restaurants and hotels. Luckily for many of these workers, they will be eligible for unemployment benefits, which will help them stay in their homes. For the undocumented members of our community, the situation is much more dire. No work, no rental reprieve, and no unemployment benefits are coming their way. For these workers, local assistance is needed to keep their families afloat and in their homes.
From the very outset of this crisis, the City of Sonoma has been focused on food security. By providing additional help with groceries and food, we believed that we could lighten the load on other bills for families in our community. If a family’s food needs were met, we felt, they could shift that money to pay for rent, electricity, and other expenses. In addition, from the very outset, it was clear that the job of the city was to partner with local nonprofits and community leaders with a perspective to provide assistance to the entire valley, not just the City of Sonoma.
To do this we have confined regular meetings to assess food needs and explore new opportunities. Dubbed the Sonoma Valley Food Security Task Force this broad coalition consists of myself; Lisa Jansen of the City of Sonoma; Jennifer Grey Thompson, North Bay Rebuild; Redwood Empire Food Bank; Sonoma Ecology Center; La Luz; Sonoma Overnight Support; Impact 100; Veronica Napoles, Springs Community Alliance; Maite Itturi, El Verano Elementary; The Sonoma Chamber of Commerce; Vintage House; School District Superintendent Soccoro Shiels; Kimberly Blattner; Mike Thompson’s Office; Bill Dodd’s Office; Susan Gorin’s Office; Sonoma Valley Education FoundationFund; Sonoma Together; Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers; Sonoma Family Meal; and others.
This group meets weekly and has produced a lot of great work around this issue of food security in Sonoma Valley. To shore up the valley-wide decrease to our volunteer base, The Sonoma Ecology Center created SonomaValleyVolunteers.org – a website that links volunteers to nonprofits and allows nonprofits to post volunteer opportunities.
To ensure people are aware of where food can be found throughout Sonoma Valley, the City of Sonoma’s team of Sarah Tracy and Laurie Decker created Sonomacity.org/food-security a website that lists nonprofits working on food security, a food drop calendar, and invites people to donate to these organizations.
The group has been successful in connecting organizations to get the help they need. When Vintage House expressed a need for more volunteers, the task force blasted the message through the newly created Sonoma Valley Together social media page and other pages and got the need filled. When Sonoma Overnight Support sought meals and volunteers the group assisted by volunteering and helping with connections. When the CHP had issues with the traffic created by the Flowery and El Verano food drops, the group worked together, led by the efforts of Lisa Jansen, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Maite Iturri, Cathy Capriola, and Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez to work with the CHP and ensure the Monday drop was able to happen.
The team is now embarking to fulfill the Redwood Empire Food Bank effort to consolidate services throughout Sonoma County. This is necessary due to the nearly sevenfold increase in food need that Redwood Empire is attempting to shoulder. This massive increase demands manpower and warehouse space. To do this, we have identified sites in both the Springs and the City of Sonoma that can handle increased traffic loads. We have also created a task force to provide Spanish translation to ensure that knowledge of the food drops can be spread equitably throughout the community.
These are unprecedented times but luckily they have been met with unprecedented community action. We are a valley that is experienced in disaster, and these connections and contacts have made us stronger and safer. We will continue to work until this crisis and the following economic crisis are behind us.
Nice update on all the work of Redwood Empire Food Bank and Sonoma Valley Food Security Task Force. But why is the Food for All project not mentioned? I learned about them on Facebook,they are delivering food to people who are homebound or without cars because ALL of the food sites are driveup only. These people can’t even get the hot meals from the restaurants in their own neighborhoods unless they can drive to it. Imagine seeing food being handed out from restaurants you usually can’t afford but you can’t have any because you don’t have a car.
The Food task force left these people out of its plan and Food for All had to step in and meet what looks like a huge need. It’s disappointing that this is missing from this article. Why?
Hi Sheila,
Thank you for this note.I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding here. The task force has been working and not doing a lot of self-promotion, which always leaves room for misconceptions. I am happy to help here. Also, your name is not familiar to me, but your caring is obvious, so I look forward to meeting you in person. We can always use more caring people out here.
The Food For All group has been invited to the task force since their inception a couple of weeks ago. We too were thrilled to see them make their first delivery last week and the entire task force has made it abundantly clear we will help with funds, donations, whatever is needed. I am sure Dmitra would confirm this claim. We agree Food For All is doing important work and enjoyed the photos on Facebook as well. Ensuring that those who are unable to get food and needed supplies is central to their mission and we support the effort 100 percent.
We have a weekly meeting and two of the primaries for that effort, Maite Iturri and Dmitra Smith, have been on nearly every mtg. Maite is one of my favorite people and we have a lot of experience working together, especially during the 2017 fires. She was and is a rock star.
The task force reached out of specifically include them even before they rightly identified this gap. When Dmitra requested walk up service at la Luz, the request was immediately filled but then called off by the Food For All — I believe because the survey revealed a delivery model would work better and serve more people. I am unsure why you think they were left out of anything — there are about 30 orgs on the task force doing great work and not all are named.
I’m not sure we will get much better at self-promotion, but I do know that in the meantime, Food For All is in need of donations. We anticipate all of our work will go on for months, including Food For All. They are also providing essentials, such as diapers, every two weeks. I am providing the link to donate below. https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8ope1EmWCu.
Please do not hesitate to reach out directly to me if you see something amiss or a need that isn’t being filled. This effort requires all of us, including you, and I welcome your feedback.This is a time when we have to work together to ensure our community is well served. It matters. I look forward to meeting you!
Jennifer
jennifer@rebuildnorthbay.org