Campbell Pantry is making a difference in our community by providing families who struggle with food insecurity free groceries twice a month on 2nd and 4th Saturday from 12 PM to 2 PM. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 20 million people lost their jobs. The volunteers at Campbell Care ministry are doing their part with help of City Team Ministry and Second Harvest food bank to relieve their pains.
At 11 AM, about 10 volunteers from Campbell Church of Christ come to the church campus to set up the grocery distribution. To keep volunteers and our guests safe, all volunteers are required to receive safety training, wear PPE, and practice social distancing. Several teams are assembled working on different Saturdays. About 11:10 AM, the city team truck pulls into the parking lot and groceries for over 100 families are unloaded from the truck. The groceries are divided into four groups: dry goods, chicken/eggs/milk, produce and non-perishables, organized under the two canopies located in the front of the church building. 1-2 volunteers are assigned to each food group, ready to load the groceries into our guests’ vehicles. About 11:30 AM, our greeter starts to greet our guests who arrive early and gives directions for them to wait in their cars and lining up at the back of the parking lot for registration before food distribution.
Scott Pence, our church elder, leads the way, always on site early providing safety training, encouragement and disinfect all surfaces and equipment to ensure the safety of all involved. Alfonso, our “ambassador” to the Spanish speaking community and one of the most reliable volunteers, is always onsite, greeting and assisting anyone who needs help. Alonso is also effective in sharing the work we do at Campbell pantry and has brought many struggling families to our food program.
Robby Ridder, one of our high school seniors, also plays a key role in the Campbell pantry program. He started to volunteer at Campbell Care ministry in January. It is encouraging to see a young man choose to spend 4 hours of his time on Saturday twice a month to help to feed the hungry. Robby’s task is registering our guest when they arrive. This task requires computer skills as well as the ability to speak Spanish. Robby has both and is always working with our guests with patience and a cheerful attitude.
60% of our guests come from the four zip codes around the Campbell Church of Christ as shown in the figure. The rest come from South Bay cities such as Milpitas, Sunnyvale, South and East San Jose. According to a recent survey conducted by City Team, like many struggling families, the food items our guests need most are meat, milk, and eggs. Furthermore, many of them wish to receive rent assistance. Please keep them in your prayers.
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