Isabella Camacho screamed and hid behind her mom when she first saw me. This fright made sense. Anybody who has seen me knows I’m two to three times the size of an average person and about a hundred times bigger than two-year-old Camacho. I’m gigantic and rumpled. She is tiny and neat. Yikes!
After about 90 seconds, she was smiling at me and showing off the cookie she had won for herself. Having big brothers at home, she knew she had to fight to get what she wanted at the Fort Bragg Food Bank even wearing pink spotted slippers. She never let go of mom, just in case the monsters around turned out to be scary after all. From behind the counter, volunteer Jerry Smith produced a special colorful cake that Harvest had made for someone, who evidently didn’t come to pick it up. Judging by the colors, I could see that some green and gold team spirit may have waned temporarily. The giant football cake didn’t impress Isabella despite the colors.
“The football will be for her brothers,” said Miriam Lopez, her mom, laughing at the independent show by her girl.
A few minutes later, Isabella spotted a chocolate cookie she just had to have. She slowly savored the cookie for the next five minutes, while mom shopped, mostly for vegetables.
“I love the okra. I never had this before I came here,” Lopez said.
Lopez took a long time carefully picking out food for her family. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas continue to be busy. Unlike the special holiday dinner distributions, one does have to hunt to find the treasures at the Food Bank. Today, there is far more healthy food than ever before at the Food Bank. With prices not a factor, people can pick out lots of good produce and choose organic foods. Kids pick chocolate cookies. Moms choose carrots and even okra. Okra is one of the best sources of natural dietary fiber. Okra is also rich in Thiamin, B6, C, folic acid, riboflavin, calcium and zinc.
Okra is a funny food, from its appearance to the reaction people give to its taste and its historic story. Many people associate it with the American South. Okra is actually believed to have somehow been brought to America from Africa and cultivated by slaves, who remembered and recognized it. It became an ethnic food, mostly because the Europeans seemed to want to boil it. Doing so makes it slimy and slippery. Fried it’s much better tasting.
To this day, it always gets very divergent reactions. I love it as does Lopez, but not boiled. Food Bank Warehouse Manager Jim DiMauro voted no, shaking his head vigorously. I told him a fable, that when the confederates captured a potential Yankee spy, all he had to do was eat some okra to prove he was a Reb.
“They would have had to shoot me,” said DiMauro.
Among the most beloved items for Food Bank clients is the incredible bread from Café Beaujolais. Best of all is surely the fresh veggies from the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.
“Three years ago we provided about 1,200 pounds (of vegetables),” said Mary Anne Payne, executive director of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens
“We had a fundraiser to expand the vegetable garden two years ago. Last year we provided 6,000 pounds plus a bit for our own café. This year we have topped 7,000 pounds and the year isn’t over yet,” Payne said.
I took home an enormous cabbage head from the Gardens a while back at the Food Bank. The outer leaves were so fresh they made burritos bigger and better than any flour tortilla you could ever have.
“We invited the Food Bank Board over to see the operation this fall and to talk about ways we might work even more closely together. They are very happy with the arrangement. Our vegetables are among the freshest they receive. The only comment was that perhaps we might provide a bit less kale. We all laughed.
This is one of the many ways we feel the Gardens serves the community,” said Payne. That’s all well and good but I would not have laughed at poor kale. I love kale and its time everybody stopped picking on it! Remember what happened when the first George Bush picked on broccoli!
For me, there is nothing like cooking one of my chickens with some kale to get me in the holiday spirit. For Food Bank clients, the turkey was the hit this year. The volunteers and three staff members gave away 722 turkey dinners during the special 2015 Thanksgiving distribution. Figuring a modest 10 pounds per turkey that would be 7220 pounds of just turkey (some were hams or chickens). Many of those were transported and delivered to the home bound, in Westport and in the Cypress and Moura senior housing facilities.
And it’s not just turkey they get. The rest of the food given away or delivered weighs just as much. Several years ago, former Food Bank employee Doug Duncan and I delivered to the seniors. We got treated like beloved grandchildren, teased, hugged and given advice by a whole bunch of mostly senior citizen ladies, some homebound, some who can’t drive. And they sure needed our help carrying all that good food for Christmas.
The bag for both holidays comes packed with more fixings than any family can carry. That 7000 pounds is more than double the amount of salmon consumed at the World’s Largest Salmon Barbecue every summer in South Noyo Harbor. It’s mighty weight-lifting for staff and volunteers, who work very long days. Volunteers often leave exhausted on the pre-holiday days and with some extra holiday spirit in tow.
Some people did take ham or chicken this year, said executive director Nancy Severy. “The Thanksgiving distribution went great (with much credit to Jim DiMauro, warehouse manager). Lots of smiling people. We had enough for all, thanks to our incredibly wonderful and generous community. Most people took turkeys, but a good number took some of the alternative meats, the most popular being the hams,” Severy said.
After a wild and busy Thanksgiving week, the Food Bank always needs even more turkeys or hams for Christmas dinner.
The truly spectacular meals served by the food bank on Thanksgiving and Christmas means a holiday give away part for two solid, long workdays before each holiday. People and cars make old, industrial South Franklin into a party. There are many laughs and lots and lots of work.
“Being here at the holidays is a great feeling, said long time volunteer Nina Pivirotto, who served on the board of directors for 12 years. Many people stay with this volunteer work for many years. She is one of many I have interviewed many times over the years.
There is a change in how Season of Sharing is being administered this year. The Fort Bragg Advocate-News, The Mendocino Beacon and the Fort Bragg Food Bank would like to thank the Community Foundation of Mendocino County for its help in receiving and processing donations — and passing along 100 percent of the funds to the Food Bank — for the past decade and a half. Starting this year, donations can be made directly to the Food Bank. Please make checks out to the Fort Bragg Food Bank and put “Season of Sharing” on the memo line. Mail to Fort Bragg Food Bank, Post Office Box 70, Fort Bragg, CA 95437. Each week, the names of donors from the previous week will be printed in the newspapers unless the donor wishes to remain anonymous.
“Everyone, especially in this economy, should come down and spend a day here at the food bank. They will leave feeling better about everything,” Pivirotto said.
This week’s Season of Sharing donors are: Wesley Humecky, Sharon Flood, Dale Perkins, Gerald and Lina Sue Denevi, Francis and Sallie Richards, Monica Steinisch, Deborah Smith, David and Deborah Holmer, Winston and Rebecca Bowen, and two anonymous donors. Total Donations from Nov. 30 through Dec. 5 were $1,260. Total donations to date are $2,510.
