Foodbank teams up with CERT volunteers to respond to local disasters

For the last three years, the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County has incorporated disaster preparedness and response into its core services.

Foodbank officials say that's all possible thanks to Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers like Karen Kegg, who works the call center and encourages anyone interested to get involved.

"They're trying to get some emergency volunteers in each neighborhood so that if there is fire, flooding, traffic problems, you know, somebody on the ground says, 'I know who we can call,'" Kegg said.

According to the Foodbank’s Director of Marketing, Laurel Alcantar, the non-profit plays a big role in the county’s emergency response and CERT volunteers are essential to that support.

"During something like a fire, the impact of that type of natural disaster can be pretty far-reaching," she explained.

Alcantar says the prolonged impacts of displacement, evacuations, and loss of work hours highly impact individuals who already struggle to make ends meet.

"We're already looking at over a 25% increase in food costs over the last four years, so when a family is paycheck-to-paycheck and takes that kind of hit where half of their hours are cut for a week, which is very common, they frequently turn to us for food assistance," Alcantar said.

Last year, the Foodbank served 215,000 people, which equals the level of need during the pandemic, officials said.

Currently, the Foodbank is delivering pallets of food and water to staging areas for firefighters during the Lake Fire response.