OC Board of Supervisors approve $3 million to restock food banks
The Orange County Board of Supervisors has voted to spend $3 million in funding to restock local food banks.
In order to fund the effort, the county will use money from the American Rescue Plan Act. They'll buy food for the Second Harvest Food Bank Orange County, Community Action Partnership's OC Food Bank and Abound Food Care.
"No family should go hungry, let alone in Orange County," said OC Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Wagner. "Our food banks are strapped and looking for help. The sooner we can get the funds to the food banks, the sooner we can start relieving families of the unfortunate burden of not knowing where their next meal is coming from."
The decision comes in light of a change on April 1, when CalFresh, the pandemic-era federal benefit that helped supplement food budgets for low-income families and seniors came to an end.
More than 3,000 families in Orange County were affected by the changes, amounting to nearly $30 million worth of food on a monthly basis.
Mark Lowry, the director of Orange County Food Bank, said that his teams are ramping up their efforts so people don't go hungry.
"So, families will essentially be receiving what they received three years ago," Lowry said. "But, things aren't equal to what they were three years ago. We're in the middle of 40-year record inflation. So, food, gasoline, rent and every other living expense costs more. So, their buying power has been substantially eroded in the last three years."
