Volunteers hand out 10,000 pounds of food in Del Paso Heights. ‘We’re grateful for that’

In the first event of its kind in Del Paso Heights, volunteers with the Neighborhood Wellness Foundation on Sunday distributed 10,000 pounds of free food to community members of the North Sacramento neighborhood.

The nonprofit partnered with local and national organizations to bring in over 50 volunteers who helped unload two trucks full of fresh produce and help bag and distribute the food — avocados, potatoes, tortillas, spinach, eggs and oranges — to people driving by or who stopped for the event.

“One of the reasons why we are doing the food today is because it relieves some economic stress. Food is out of control expensive,” said Gina Warren, the CEO and Co-Founder of Neighborhood Wellness.

While Neighborhood Wellness has conducted food distribution efforts before, mostly to local homeless encampments, this is the first event of its kind and of this magnitude, Warren said.

By 11:30 a.m., only 30 minutes into distribution, hundreds had stopped by or had food dropped off at their car. Volunteers also went out to give bags to those who couldn’t make it to the center.

It was a hot morning, as the heat wave continued in Sacramento, but volunteers and residents were staying cool with tents and coolers of bottled water.

“We’re doing it because there’s a need in this community, we live in a food desert. This is an opportunity to give out fresh produce, good produce,” Penelope Larry, a pastor at Potter’s House Church of God in Christ, said. “We’re grateful for that.”

Volunteers worked quickly to bag the different fruits and vegetables, sorting through crates full of potatoes and packages of tortillas in an assembly-line to bag large totes of food, which would get handed out within a few minutes of being filled.

One volunteer was helping wave a “free food” sign on the corner to bring in more people, and others hurried to cars driving by to hand them a few bags.

Social Change and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, or AHF, were among the nationwide nonprofits that donated the food.

Locally, the Jubilare Evangelistic Ministries, the Sacramento Omega Psi Phi chapter and Del Paso Union joined Potter’s House in bringing dozens of volunteers to help with set-up and cleanup as well as assembling and handing out bags.

Many of the volunteers have worked with Neighborhood Wellness before, which they see as a focal point and gathering space in Del Paso Heights.

“Neighborhood Wellness is such a jewel in this neighborhood. They provide so many services that are critical and lifesaving,” Todd Belcore, executive director of Social Change, said. “They recognize just how much pain people are enduring, whatever we can do to work together to alleviate that pain is something worth doing.”

Larry has gone to healing circles and spends time at the center, looking to make connections within her community.

“I come out here sometimes just to hang around,” Larry said. “To meet people in the community so that when something happens, and it’s not an if, it’s that when something happens, people will know people that can help them.”

Warren said that event planning took several months, and that they were relying on word of mouth and social media promotions to bring in members of the community.

Neighborhood Wellness, which has 19 staff members, has been in the Del Paso Heights community since 2015 and also hosts weekly healing circles and academic engagement programs both through their center at the corner of Grant Avenue and Clay Street and at Grant High School.

The weekly mental health support group that the foundation hosts has seen proven impact, giving people a space to talk and allowing leaders to connect them with important resources, Warren said.

“It’s really connecting our people to the resources that are going to help them become stabilized,” Warren said.

At Grant High School they serve 1,000 students per month. Daily, about 60 members are served through the center.

The theme of the free food distribution event was “neighbors lifting neighbors,” and Warren said she hopes they will be able to host more of them in the future.

“We can increase our reach and let the community know that there are so many great, positive things happening in Del Paso Heights and have them stop focusing on what’s not right,” Warren said.