Around the holiday season, large barrel-shaped donation bins for the Contra Costa and Solano Food Bank appear at churches, shopping centers, community centers, and other locations across the East Bay.
These bins are designed to collect cans and other nonperishable food items. But once you drop off your donations, what actually happens to them?
The Bay Area Telegraph recently joined a tour of the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano County so we could find out firsthand. We visited the food bank’s warehouse in Concord, California, and learned about what happens to community food donations and the many programs the food bank runs throughout the year.
Your Food’s Incredible Journey
When you donate food to one of the hundreds of bins scattered across the East Bay, food bank trucks periodically pick them up and deliver them to a 33,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art warehouse near Buchanan Field in the industrial part of Concord.
The barrels are stacked on pallets and prepared for sorting.
While food donations from the community are an important source for the food bank, they are far from the only source…