Update as of Saturday, March 14, 2020
Harry Chapin Food Bank is prepared to do whatever is needed to help ensure that no one will go hungry, especially during this unprecedented crisis. Obviously, this situation is very fluid, and we will do our best to keep you all informed on where you can get food and how you can help.
Currently, we are not experiencing a major disruption in our food sourcing channels, but we could use extra volunteers willing to be in our warehouse to help with food sorting. We plan on utilizing our normal distribution channels so long as they are deemed safe and the product sourcing remains available. We encourage anyone seeking food, to reference our food locator by clicking here, and contact the local pantry to ensure updated distribution time prior to arriving at the pantry.
We are evaluating how to maximize social distancing in all of our operations, especially as the epidemic progresses. Currently, we plan on increasing our mobile pantry distributions and will release our distributing sites as soon as we have them finalized.
We are anticipating the need to move to a drive-thru distribution model which would include distributing prepacked shelf-stable food kits and if possible, supplementing the kits with fresh products. We will need help in building and distributing these kits and the packing of these kits have already begun. We are still finalizing distribution locations for these kits.
If you are able, well and willing to help in our warehouse or with the distribution efforts, please contact Lori Harrington, volunteer manager at volunteering@harrychapinfoodbank.org.
We will also gladly accept any and all contributions to this massive undertaking. If you are inclined to support our efforts, please click here to make a gift.
We are grateful for our ongoing partnerships and are reminded that only together we can continue to serve those who are hungry in our community.