New Unity Van Brings More Refrigerated Food to Those Facing Food Insecurity
John Palminteri
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) –The newest refrigerated van is now getting filled up to combat the growing needs of the Unity Shoppe in Santa Barbara. It comes at a time when the need for fresh food continues to grow.
Unity Shoppe Executive Director and CEO Angela Miller-Bevan said, “so we have we have three refrigerated vans and this was just added to our fleet. We’re super excited about the relationship with Whole Foods. They have just done such an amazing thing for us and they designed it.”
That design has fruits, vegetables, and other food products. It gets a lot of looks, but also reminds the community fresh food is getting picked up and brought in at a steady pace.
Miller-Bevan said, “it is huge for us because we pick up five days a week. So I have drivers going out all over the place to all the different stores in town – Grocery Outlet, Whole Foods, Gelsons, Vons, Albertsons and Target.”
One of the stops Wednesday was the Grocery Outlet store just a few minutes from the Unity Shoppe in downtown Santa Barbara.
In some stores, the pick up could be designated surplus food items, and in others, it can be a purchase with donated gift cards.
Kevin Easter with the Unity Shoppe was pushing a cart of food and said, “it’s usually the staples. Pasta, canned vegetables, potatoes, onions and some type of ground beef. That type of thing.” Seasonally it can also be many of the necessary food products, for example at a holiday meal.
For the Unity crew, they are often out in the morning after the stores set aside the donation from the overnight stocking shift.
Easter said, “and then they have it prepped for us so the drivers will come, load up the vehicle, refrigerate it, and then go straight to Unity Shoppe.”
The van was off loaded at the Unity Shoppe in minutes and the items were on the shelves right away.
The vans make it a very seamless process. It goes from the stores to the Unity Shoppe and the clients right away.
Miller-Bevan said, “thanks to the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara, we have been able to put some refrigerators in some freezers that helped us so that we can distribute more food into the community.”
One recipient, Tony Rogers, said this gives him healthier choices. “They have good freezers. The food is really preserved and nice for us. It’s a blessing to have all those extra resources. So it is not wasted in the community.”
The third van comes at a time when the need is growing in different demographics and new recipients on a limited budget are coming in all the time.
Miller-Bevan said the clients can use the money they are saving on healthy food for other things like “rent and gas for the car and childcare.”
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