Brooks Painting Charity redesigns Yolo Food Bank for annual charity painting
Last spring, the Yolo Food Bank was deemed the winner of the 12th Annual Brooks Painting Charity Paint Giveaway contest, which donates painting services to local community-oriented organizations. Since Jan. 19, the Food Bank neared its completion with the painting and labor for the interior of the warehouse. The new Food Bank headquarters is located at 233 Harter Avenue in Woodland, Calif.
In a press release by Yolo Food Bank, the president of Brooks Painting Charity Jeremy Brooks commented on the decision.
“We believe in giving back and supporting worthy causes, and the annual charity paint is one way we do that,” Brooks said. “The relationships we have built and the lives we have changed as a result of this program provides us with such deep satisfaction and an added sense of purpose to our work.”
The Yolo Food Bank now joins a long list of charities that Brooks has sponsored. These communities include Davis Little League, the Sharp family and Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center of Yolo County, also known as Empower Yolo, Empower Yolo Davis Summer House, Hillel at Davis and Sacramento, Yolo County Animal Shelter, Yolo County Care Continuum Safe Harbor House and many others.
As part of the “End Hunger Yolo” project, Yolo Food Bank’s new facility greatly expands the nonprofit’s ability to fulfill its goal of addressing hunger and malnutrition in Yolo County.
UC Davis students and many others in the community were happy with the new changes. Evan Dumas, a fourth-year biotechnology major at UC Davis, was one of many students excited about the expansion.
“The new facility is safer for volunteers to work and boosts morale,” Dumas said. “It also makes the facility more inviting so that more people are encouraged to volunteer there.”
The Food Bank’s new building is nearly four times the size of the current location. The 37,000 square-foot facility will ultimately allow for a 200 percent increase in the amount of food that can be accepted and distributed. Currently, the food bank issues more than four million pounds of food throughout the county each year, with 52,000 vulnerable individuals each month accepting services from the organization. This is facilitated by a network of 200 nonprofit organizations, both private and public sector agencies and service partners.
Yolo Food Bank hopes to move to its new location by the end of March, with the goal of making an even bigger impact on the community and continuing to serve the needy and poor. Michael Bisch, the Yolo Food Bank executive director, spoke on behalf of the organization.
“Despite being known for an abundant agricultural economy, food insecurity is an everyday concern for nearly 20 percent of Yolo County residences,” Bish said. “As many as one in four children do not have enough to eat, and senior citizens and rural residents are disproportionately impacted, as are the working poor and their families, the recently unemployed, veterans, students, homeless and migrant farm workers. This new building means the difference between surviving and thriving for these neighbors, and Brooks Painting is playing a key role in making this possible.”
Written by: John Regidor — city@theaggie.org
