The Food Bank of Northern Nevada's Mobile Harvest program is a way to bring fresh produce and dairy into neighborhoods where people need them. These days, the model has changed a bit.
"Right now we're doing more shelf-stable items and we're doing an emergency food box at every distribution for families, as well as some produce," said Jocelyn Lantrip with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.
They're also changing the way they distribute food. They're using bigger sites like parking lots to facilitate a drive-through delivery method and practice more social distancing. Places Like Meadowood Mall, the Grand Sierra Resort, and Greater Nevada Field are donating the use of their parking lots for these sites.
"The corporations have been great about letting us use their parking lots while they're not open," Lantrip said. "We were worried about where we were going to do these drive-through distributions because it takes a lot more space and everyone has been great, very welcoming to us and letting us show up and take over for a few hours."
The Mobile Harvest Program is open to everyone and there's been a big uptick at some of these sites.
"We've seen a 50% jump at most of our distributions," Lantrip said. "We had a little under 500 people the first time at the GSR, the next time we came out, less than 2 weeks later, was 827 families. So that's a big jump."
She says a lot of these families are facing unprecedented circumstances.
"We're seeing a lot of new people right now, a lot of people that are recently unemployed, and sometimes it's tough to navigate how to get help, so it's a really great idea to go to our website, we're updating the schedules of all the programs every day."
The Mobile Harvest Program is open to everyone, all they ask is recipients fill out an online intake form sooner rather than later.
"We're seeing a lot of people that are telling us they're not receiving a paycheck right now; there's a lot of uncertainty," Lantrip said. "They need food for their families and that's why we're here. So if you need food for your families, don't wait until things get really bad and you've spent every dollar. Come and get food assistance with us now."
The Food Bank has other programs for kids and seniors and partners with 145 agencies all over Northern Nevada. So far, they haven't had a problem keeping food on pantry shelves.
"The supply chain is a little different right now; it's taking us a little longer to get food in, but we're looking into the future," Lantrip said. "We're ordering the food we need to get those emergency food boxes built, we've built thousands and thousands of them, so we're continuing that work. The community has been very generous. We're in this for the long game though, this is not going to go away quickly."
For more information, visit: https://www.fbnn.org/
