“All hands on deck” for storm clean-up at local food bank

The Yuma Community Food Bank felt the impacts of Hurricane Rosa after the storm made some significant water damage to their building and perishable items.

The administrative building was flooded with three to four inches of water and clean-up lasted about 12 hours.

“We had a lot of rain that came, that we couldn’t do anything about just because of the way the wind was blowing it in,” Shara Merten, President and CEO of the Yuma Community Food Bank said.

Rosa’s rains and winds caused the food bank to lose power. Merten said once their computer is up and running they will supply food boxes with canned items and water, after loosing refrigerated items.

“The fact that we were without power for over 12 hours, so, when you have an event like that happens, food safety is our primary concern, so we lost a lot of our refrigerated items,” Merten said.

The storm and its damages has affected a portion of Yuma residents who rely on the food bank for emergency food boxes. An estimated 35 percent of food insecure residents rely on the food banks resources.

“It’s a lot of people trying to feed. It’s the first of the month and we typically are hit very hard on the first of the month,” said Merten.

One food bank customer, Alex Terrones, said he came for meat and milk. The food bank didn’t have the items he was looking for this time around.

“They just, they had what I already had, so I’m not going to like take something I don’t need. Maybe somebody else needs it, you know?” Terrones asked.

The food bank is reaching out to the public for their help in donations. This could be money, time, or food donations. For more information on how you can help click here.