Foodbank of Santa Barbara County staff and volunteers are feeding four times more than their usual number of customers, and extra hands have arrived in the form of the California National Guard. In South County, six Guardsmen from the 146th Airlift Wing — and 14 in North County — are helping the Foodbank assemble and distribute the additional deliveries of fresh produce and healthy staple foods the nonprofit supplies to 300 partner sites for free.
A record 83,000 pounds were sent around the county on Wednesday alone, said Judith Smith-Meyer, the Foodbank’s marketing director, and in March the nonprofit surpassed one million pounds of foodstuffs, an agency record. The camouflage-wearing Guardsmen were first deployed on Friday in Lompoc, when the emergency food distribution at the Boys & Girls Club, which normally serves 125 families, saw 200 lined up when it opened, said Jamie Diggs, a Foodbank manager.
The South County contingent is led by Lieutenant Colonel Adam Goldstone, who is an optometrist from Los Angeles in his normal workday life. “We’re here to do whatever is needed, for as long as we’re needed,” he explained as his troops moved produce from the parking lot into cold storage. The guardsmen are nurses and medical technicians, part of the 146th’s medical team, which is based at the Channel Islands National Guard in Port Hueneme.
