In February of 2020, Food for People, Humboldt county’s food bank, suffered from a sewage flood that wreaked havoc on their facility. But in classic Humboldt fashion, the non-profit turned a challenge into opportunity.
By June 2023, Food For People had built a bigger, more effective facility. “This is about 300 times the cold storage we had in our old facility,” said Executive Director Carly Robbins.
Robbins highlighted the uptick in food insecurity in Humboldt County, "We've seen about another 30% increase,” Robbins said. “So on average, we're serving about 21,000 individuals throughout the county every single month."
Keith Flamer of College of the Redwoods and Tom Jackson of Cal Poly Humboldt visited Robbins to talk about the upgraded facility and their fight against food insecurity in Humboldt County.
TRANSCRIPT:
Tom Jackson:
These are really big refrigerators.
Keith Flamer:
And so, right now we're looking at two huge fridge doors and we're about to walk inside. And these are just…
Tom Jackson:
They're Costco-sized.
Keith Flamer:
Costco-sized refrigerators.
Carly Robbins:
But yeah, this is about 300 times the cold storage we had in our old facility, so this was huge for us.
Keith Flamer:
So, Carly, how much bigger is your current warehouse than previous?
Carly Robbins:
Previous warehouse was about 9000 square feet, and this is closer to 15. And here's the freezer, I won't make you go in it is quite cold. It's, I think negative, two right now. And in the front is where we have our onsite pantry, which we call our choice pantry, because it's built off of a choice models. So people get to come in and pick foods that work for them, you know, dietary wise, cultural significance, or just foods them and their family will eat.
Tom Jackson:
Can you tell us a little bit about food for people and how you came to be the executive director of it?
Carly Robbins:
Yeah, well, Food for People is the food bank for Humboldt County, so we provide services to address food insecurity and hunger in a bunch of different ways. Primarily because Humboldt County is uniquely rural and has a lot of its own challenges. So, you know, here on site at our main location in Eureka, we have an onsite food pantry that we operate. We additionally operate mobile distributions. And then we also have programs like our senior nutrition programs and our child nutrition programs, which are really targeting populations that traditionally are a little bit more vulnerable to the effects of food insecurity and hunger.
Tom Jackson:
You've been in this role nine years, is that right?
Carly Robbins:
Correct.
Tom Jackson:
What led you to go into this field?
Carly Robbins:
Well, I have a big love of Humboldt County, and I truly love it. I did high school here. I did community college at College of the Redwoods here.
Keith Flamer:
Thank you very much.
Carly Robbins:
And I've moved away a couple of times, but I always end up coming back. And I had actually volunteered with Food for People via the Backpacks for Kids program, so I knew it was an organization I loved and they had an opening for a development director, and I've been here ever since.
Keith Flamer:
Congratulations.
Carly Robbins:
Thank you.
Keith Flamer:
That’s wonderful. How much of a rise in food insecurity have you seen in Humboldt County, say, in the last two years? And what do you expect moving forward, especially as I'm thinking the cost of living continues to increase, so how are we dealing with that?
Carly Robbins:
I think you kind of hit the nail on the head. Cost-of-living has increased pretty dramatically. When I came to Food for People almost ten years ago, we were serving about 12,000 individuals every single month. That increased [during] pandemic times to about 16,000.
Tom Jackson:
That's a lot.
Keith Flamer:
That’s a lot.
Carly Robbins:
Yeah, well just since what people are considering the end of the pandemic, when all of those additional food assistance programs that the feds had put in place came to an end. We've seen about another 30% increase. So on average, we're serving about 21,000 individuals throughout the county every single month.
Tom Jackson:
Carly Robbins, the executive director of Food for People, and Carly, we are serving more than 21,000 people, give or take, as you said. How far away do they come to use the services here?
Carly Robbins:
Well, we serve the whole county. As I mentioned previously, we have mobile distributions that go out to the more remote areas. So we have a big refrigerated truck we send out throughout the county to do pop-up distributions in smaller communities that might be considered food deserts because they don't have as ready access to food.
Keith Flamer:
For example?
Carly Robbins:
Weitchpec, Orleans. Newly, this year we've been trying to reach even more areas that are traditionally underserved. So we've added Alderpoint, Myers Flat. We have new partnerships with the Wiyot Tribe and Bear River Rancheria. We have amazing partners out in Blocksburg, Dinsmore, Bridgeville area, who we bring food to, and they do food distributions.
Tom Jackson:
How does one qualify?
Carly Robbins:
Most of our programs have income guidelines that we follow. It's almost all self-certification, so we're not out asking people for proof of income, anything like that, but they self-certify that they meet the income requirements. Our team here is pretty good if someone is living on the edge financially, maybe they don't specifically qualify via the income guidelines, but they had a major tragedy, maybe a medical emergency. Their car broke down something along those lines. They'll find a way to get them food. It might not be the USDA foods, but it will be something else that we can send them away with. So they're not walking away with nothing.
Tom Jackson:
I get the sense, too, just by listening to you describe what is happening here. There are days of great joy in the work that you do and you can't see the smile she just gave when I said that. Can you talk about some of the joys you get not only serving others, but being the executive director here for Food for People?
Carly Robbins:
Oh, well, you know, Food for People has grown pretty exponentially since its beginnings. And a lot of the credit for that goes to our team who makes it all worthwhile. And they make it a joy to come to work every single day. But beyond that, it's seeing a difference when you're helping. You know, a lot of the conversations we have can be heartbreaking. It's people in situations you wouldn't know how to tackle yourself. And, you know, when we have people on site here shopping through the choice pantry, we'll have little kids who get really excited about something like strawberries, because that's something they don't often have in their home. So it's those little moments that bring it all together.
Tom Jackson:
So I'm sure there's ways that individuals who are listening to this could help, maybe give or other things like volunteer. What advice or suggestions would you have for them?
Carly Robbins:
Definitely. We accept assistance of all sorts. Volunteers are a huge portion of the workforce that food for people uses to make all of our programs happen. And volunteering can look very different for different people. Anything from sorting through produce in our warehouse to doing intake interviews in our pantry to talk to clients. But also, if you don't have time and want to give, financial donations are always amazing. It helps us purchase the foods that we kind of need to round out our services. Or if, you know, you have a little extra food, maybe you grew too much zucchini in your garden or something like that, an issue some people have. We are always here to take it. Or those extra cans that you're not going to use.
Tom Jackson:
Carly I learned so much not only from the tour, but listening to you describe the work that you do and how Food for People helps others. Thank you very much for joining us today.
Keith Flamer:
It has been such a joy and a pleasure.
Carly Robbins:
Yes, this is wonderful. It's great to talk to you. And I'm so excited you got to come and see our facility.
