A Typical Portion for a Family of Four

For those who are curious about the amount of food we distribute to clients, here is what we distributed Thursday for a family of four.

We emptied the boxes and bags in the cart and put the groceries on a table (and under the table) to see what all was in there. Wow!

The groceries include canned goods, pasta, bread and peanut butter from our inventory.

Some of the groceries are from USDA, and is available to those who meet requirements. These USDA groceries are available at the beginning of each month and are distributed on a first-come-first-served basis until gone.

The produce is from our donors (farmers, local gardeners, Elk Grove Community Garden, and grocers). Their generosity supplements what we distribute. We are very thankful to our contributors and are very impressed at the agricultural skill of the ones who garden.

Mayor and Congressman Tour EGFBS

Mayor Sophia Scherman and Congressman Dan Lungren toured EG Food Bank Services today.

Marie Jachino, Executive Director, showed our important guests around our warehouse and explained our mission, vital programs, and gave our sobering statistics.


Congressman Lungren wanted to learn more about our services and spoke with our program managers. Each manager spoke with the Congressman and gave details and success stories from their program.


We were able to get our busy volunteers to take a break: some of them explained to the Congressman their tasks in the warehouse and most of them smiled for a group photo.































We found out that Congressman Lungren likes ice cream. We served up ice cream cones and had a nice morning treat. We all agreed that ice cream before lunch was a great idea.

We thank Mayor Scherman and Congressman Lungren for taking time from their busy schedule to visit us at EGFBS.

Sometimes it is Difficult

I spoke with E at the Food Closet today. He works with our clients, helping carry out groceries and loading the bags into their vehicle. He is a friendly person, and easily gets to know our clients and their stories. He teared up while he told me this story.

“Why are we so quick to be judgmental about people?” He regretted his feelings toward the clients he had assisted. As he pushed the cart full of groceries up to their beautiful, late-model SUV, E wondered if these people really needed the food. They asked if he could wait. They had to make room for the groceries. All of their belongings were in their truck. Blankets, clothes, they were living in their vehicle.

E had time to learn more about these clients as they rearranged their belongings to accommodate the provisions. They had purchased the truck before he was laid off and before she was diagnosed with cancer. We stood there for awhile in silence, we wiped the tears from our eyes.

These people are an example of the new wave of clients we are serving at Elk Grove Food Bank Services.