For two key employees of the Fort Bragg Food Bank, July 9 was independence day.
That”s the day last summer that Doug Duncan and Jim DiMauro completed their escape from the corporate world and the day both started at the Food Bank. Both men wouldn”t trade the better money they once made for the atmosphere of fun and helping they found at the Food Bank.
“I am never going back to that. My stress level is so much better and I really enjoy the job and the workplace here,” said Duncan.
“The only question I have is, why on earth didn”t I do something like this sooner?” Duncan said.
Duncan worked for medical corporations, traveling widely, servicing, delivering and jumping through the hoops set up by far away bosses. He is now the local delivery driver for the Food Bank, making early morning runs for give away goodies in Fort Bragg and Mendocino. The Food Bank makes those runs six days a week. Duncan, a part-time employee, shares pickup duties with DiMauro, who spends most of his time running the fast paced warehouse workplace on North Franklin Street. DiMauro”s last corporate job was as manager of Safeway.
DiMauro can be seen very early and very late at the Food Bank, being one of two full-time employees at the Food Bank.
“We were very fortunate to get both Doug and Jim. A person with Jim”s experience doesn”t” come along very often,” said Executive Director Nancy Severy, the other full-time employee. She praised the work of the entire 2011 team at the Food Bank.
The front desk person is Volunteer/Client Coordinator Amanda Friscia, who works with Holly Hawkins, greeting clients and taking donations. The Food Bank has benefited from many grants recently. Severy is given more time for things like this by administrative assistant Hilary Utecht-Miller.
It”s clear stopping by the Food Bank every day that everybody does pretty much everything. The part-time staff, along with all volunteers, make it seem like an army is at work, albeit a Gideon”s army.
The new crew has provided a powerful new energy to the Food Bank and just in time, as the workload has gotten bigger thanks to a huge new walk-in freezer that allows them to store, trade and deliver food for other food banks around Northern California.
I accompanied Duncan on his route to deliver food to shut in seniors. Then we went to pick up food in Mendocino.
On the food delivery route, Duncan spotted a woman who seemed to be having a hard time breathing. He told her she should consult her doctor about getting some oxygen. Home oxygen was one of the things Duncan did on his medical routes. The corporation also pounded into his head never to give anything that could be construed as advice, nor to discuss any such problems with anyone.
“When I asked her if she had any O2 in the house, part of me just froze, from all that conditioning. It was all made up by lawyers to keep anybody from suing, not to help people,” he said.
The food pickup route in Mendocino would be the envy of any food critic. There were gourmet bakery treats at Thanksgiving Coffee, where Joan Katzeff offered us coffee for our efforts, and barrels of gourmet bread at Cafe Beaujolais. There are many special treats like that bread that go quickly to discerning food bank clients, also including Harvest Market deli sandwiches and pizza dough from D”Aurelio”s in Fort Bragg.
We got delicious orange beets from Corners of the Mouth and also hit the donation barrels at Savings Bank of Mendocino County. Every morning of the week, the crew picks up a truckload of food in Fort Bragg, mostly from Harvest Market and Safeway, but also from Colombi”s, Purity, Mendocino Cookie Company, D”Aurelio”s and Starbucks.
Although neither man misses corporate life, the business training of both Duncan and DiMauro helps out quite a lot. There is a huge amount of paperwork, even on delivery routes. DiMauro constantly seeks economies of scale, filling up the trucks in every direction, from par-time driver Joe Odegaard”s Santa Rosa route to the local routes, where furniture from a local motel was delivered to clients this year.
Everybody at the Food Bank is currently working toward Christmas, with donations sought from cat food to candy canes, from hams to cash, of course.
Local businesses are putting up matching funds to provide holiday turkeys for Food Bank families. They will match dollar for dollar and turkey for turkey each donation of $200 or 20 turkeys or more.
“We are so grateful for the community effort initiated by Dwain Ray years ago and being carried on by local business and community members. It makes it possible for us to insure that no local family in need goes without on the holidays,” said Severy.
Season of Sharing
This series goes hand in glove with the Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon”s annual Season of Sharing fund drive for the Food Bank. The goal is to give the Food Bank money it can use year-round, not just during the holidays.
The nonprofit Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers.
Every cent taken in by the newspapers goes to the Food Bank.
Checks should be addressed to The Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to the newspaper at P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437, or dropped off at 450 N. Franklin St.
If you have any questions, call us at 964-5642. The fundraiser runs through Dec. 31.
Donors” names are printed each week, unless you ask to remain anonymous. This week”s donors are Paul and Nancy Kemp, Mary Kay and Boyd Hight, Randy and Carol Gluck, Elizabeth Owings, Dennis and Anna White, James Steffen, Bruce and Karen Smith, Myra Beals and Ida Matson, Janice and Robert Ball, Kit and Sandi Mosden, the Mendocino Coast Gem and Mineral Society and one anonymous donation.
The amount raised so far totals $6,970.
