The Emergency Food Bank of Stockton serves 107 sites throughout San Joaquin County. But, amid the ongoing government shutdown, they've been coming up tens of thousands of pounds of food short.
More than ten percent of San Joaquin County is food insecure, food bank officials say, according to county numbers from 2024.
"It means they don't know where their next meal's coming from. That's 83,690 individuals in our county," said Leonard Hansen, Emergency Food Bank of Stockton's CEO.
Hansen says the food bank served more than 73,000 of those people.
"And in many cases, we gave them a food box," Hansen said. "We gave them a nutrition education, we gave them an understanding of fresh produce, we served them with a food as medicine program. We did more than just a box."
Yet, Hansen expects there to be long pantry lines at the end of October due to the government shutdown. The food bank relies on 35% of its food from USDA programs.
"It's tough to gear up now, because the changes in the government over the last several months have trimmed, or in some cases, stopped," Hansen said. "For example, the FEMA program known as Emergency Food and Shelter was suspended entirely. So, all of a sudden, sources of funding and sources of boxes of food have been cut, as programs were trimmed, or changed or suspended."
Over the past three to four months, Hansen said 12 pallets, which is about 30,000 pounds of food, have been cut weekly.
"In some cases, it's just not available because of problems that the government has in getting the billing done, or getting the stuff moved around, or making a program work," Hansen said. "A lot of those things have changed, and the shutdown isn't helping."
The USDA replied with an automatic response when CBS News Sacramento tried to reach someone for comment.
"Due to staff furloughs resulting from the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, the typical monitoring of this press inbox may be impacted. We ask for your patience as remaining staff works diligently to field your requests. As you await a response, please remember these delays could have been avoided had Senate Democrats supported the clean Continuing Resolution to fund the government. Thank you for your patience and attention to this matter," the USDA wrote in the automated email.
"It's another hurdle that you jump over," Hansen said. "You never, ever give up. We did it in the pandemic. We did 243 straight days in 2020, never missed a distribution, never closed, never failed to service somebody. We will never stop."
This food bank also serves 85 mobile farmers market sites and credits working daily with the Salvation Army, the Gospel Center, and Saint Mary's.
"You just find a way," Hansen said. "You make the extra phone call, you drive an extra truck to Turlock, or Merced, or someplace that you normally wouldn't go to make sure that you can find enough to make sure that you can serve everybody."
One of the creative ways Hansen and his team are finding food is ordering shipments as far as Iowa.
Hansen encourages people who want to help the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton to donate at stocktonfoodbank.org. It's a tax-advantageous donation, and $25 can turn into $100 worth of meals.
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