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A North Bay non-profit is working to bridge the food insecurity gap by providing groceries to people sick at home.
Founded during the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, Food For Thought has strived to ensure the seriously ill receive the nutrition they needed.
“There was no real treatment, so people were dying in Sonoma County, about two people every week would die,” said Executive Director Ron Karp.
Volunteers then started delivering groceries to people living in Sonoma County who had been recently discharged from the hospital.
“They would knock on doors of people that they knew needed food,” Karp said.
Food For Thought has now shifted their focus to serve those who are recovering from COVID-19 at the request of county health officials.
“They had a family, about seven people, that were positive and they needed to quarantine, but they didn’t have food. They asked us if we’d be willing to serve them, so we said sure,” he explained.
Recognizing the importance of providing vulnerable families with access to healthy food, Karp then developed the COVID-19 Nutrition Program.
“We saw how much it helped them and how important it was that this service existed. There’s really nothing like it. We create the new program right there on the spot to serve people with COVID-19 and that the county would refer to us even though we didn’t have any idea where we would get the money from,” he said.
Since May, the agency has provided groceries to more than 600 people, 21 meals a week per person, while the demand continues to grow.
“Everybody should have the right to have access to healthy food,” Karp said. “It’s just really painful to think that for whatever reason, usually of no fault of the individual, that they can’t afford to buy or access healthy food.”
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