Special to Marinscope
The coronavirus shed light on a lot of eye-popping things about Novato. One was how many people are vulnerable to food insecurity and hunger when their fragile flow of income is disrupted for any reason. The other is how many people have the heart to rally on behalf of those suffering during tough times.
Of the many all-star community responders in our city during COVID-19, the North Marin Community Services Food Pantry volunteer team, led by Cindy Stern, answered the call with dedication and warm embraces. Stern and her crew are the recipients of the first (and everyone hopes last) Community Pandemic Assistance Award. The award was announced January 22 during the online Novato City Birthday Party, also known as the Paint the Town Red gala.
The award was a surprise to Stern, and her reaction to the honor was captured on video during the food pantry service one recent day.
“There are so many who have contributed more than I could’ve ever hoped,” said Stern, a Novato resident since 2003. “It’s turned into a tight-knit group that works like a giant machine. I just love to watch them work because they have it down to a science. If I could do anything for them, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Since the first sheltering order was issued March 16, 2020, unemployment has spiked and more Marin families teetered on homelessness. Almost 10,000 food pantry boxes have been delivered to the members of over 1,000 local households who found themselves experiencing increased food insecurity. The nearly 3,600 people who were fed by the program represents a 71% increase of the number who accessed healthy food through North Marin Community Services (NMCS) as compared with pre-COVID figures.
This is the calling of NMCS, which is heading into its 49th year of providing crucial community assistance to underserved Novato residents. Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Paddack said Stern is a real leader among our volunteer community. With a total organizational team of 290 people (60 staff and 230 volunteers), an average of 35 food pantry volunteers have committed to showing up weekly during the pandemic. Their volunteer hours amount to more than 2,300 since the shelter-in-place order began. Dozens are high school and college students eager to make their community service hours really matter.
Exceptionally meaningful, Paddack said, is that bilingual and bicultural people are a big part of the food pantry team, which acts as a bond of trust for many recipients.
“We strive for cultural humility in our work and are proud of that connection,” Paddack said. “It enables us to serve a culturally and socioeconomically mix of families in a manner that integrates and unites our community.”
Case Management Support Specialist Ceci Olmedo works alongside Stern, serves as the Spanish speaking liaison, and connects people to case management services.
When Stern first moved to Marin after spending much of her life in Contra Costa County and in Southern California, she had no idea that one of the richest counties in the state (in terms of per capita income) had residents who were struggling. Like most newcomers, she thought Marin would be immune from economic hardship solely based on its Southern Marin stereotype. She started volunteering at NMCS and because of her demonstrated leadership was asked to lead the food pantry team.
Paddack and Olmedo jointly expressed that, “We are grateful to Cindy and the entire food pantry team for their dedication and hard work, rain or shine. Overnight the team quickly converted the indoor farmer market-style pantry to an outdoor drive-through when the pandemic hit. Vulnerable people have had access to healthy food throughout the pandemic, an essential need for people to stabilize during this public health crisis. Fresh fruit, vegetables and protein have been available. We also thank our community partners San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, Extrafood.org, and all three Rotary Clubs in Novato. It takes a community to feed our most vulnerable.”
Stern and the staff are quick to share some of the most poignant tales they’ve experienced during the pandemic.
- The single mom with young kids who isn’t making enough money in her job at a big-box retailer to provide the basics. She won’t ask anyone for money, but she does need help with meals. She stops by the pantry in a rush to take kids to school, but she tells the volunteers how much she appreciates the fresh fruit and vegetables.
- An unhoused couple rely on the weekly food pantry, in addition to nonperishable food items, to have access to food.
- The family man with a master’s degree who worked in the tech industry was suddenly unemployed and came through the food pantry for a protein box to cook for his family (milk, eggs, cheese, vegetables and fruit).
- A family of six, where both parents worked in the food industry, are now unemployed and come every Tuesday in the drive-through so that their family has food on the table.
Stern has noticed how many volunteers represent Novato’s “OG” sector – original homegrown helpers. “A lot of them are born and raised here,” she said. “To me, that’s amazing. Since my family moved around, I never had that opportunity to put down deep roots. But those people who grew up here and talk about the way things were here in the 1980s or 1990s, they know how much this program means to the community. That’s a demonstration of community pride.”
NMCS said the longtime volunteers such as Debi Billetter, Selwyn Eddy, Nancy Eddy, Nancy Russo, Tom Applegate, Yvonne Tuemler-Holyoke, and Hiroko Yoshino have been food pantry stalwarts. Since the pandemic began, newcomers such as Valerie Aden-Lindsay, Leslie Biagini-Salazar, Dave Childers, and Kim Parikh have been unsung heroes in the nick of time.
Stern’s wish is that the food pantry needs start to dissipate as COVID-19 vaccination hits its stride, intensive care bed capacity keeps rising, business restrictions loosen, re-employment kicks into gear, school campuses fully reopen, and the economy returns to some semblance of its former self.
“It’s been a tough time for a lot of people, and I know people are looking forward to getting back to their regular selves,” she said. “It might not get back to normal, but to a functioning level. It’s been a shame to see it take so much of a toll on people who need help the most.
“When cars come through to pick up the groceries, we hear the thank-yous. ‘I don’t know how I’d make it without you.’ They are so gracious. That says it all. They don’t know how rewarding it is for us to hear it. That’s what keeps me going.”
Visit www.northmarincs.org for more about North Marin Community Services.
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