The Community Food Bank of San Benito County is in line to
receive a $150,000 earmark in the federal spending bill heading to
the president’s desk after recent approvals by both houses of
Congress.
The Community Food Bank of San Benito County is in line to receive a $150,000 earmark in the federal spending bill heading to the president’s desk after recent approvals by both houses of Congress.
The food bank, formerly called Community Pantry, has been seeking federal help for several years toward pursuing the purchase of its own building. The nonprofit organization that offers a wide variety of assistance and outreach programs, has been leasing space at 1133 San Felipe Drive for about four years since it was forced to leave its prior spot near the airport.
The organization has been accruing money in its building fund for a couple of years. Executive Director Mary Anne Hughes noted how Community Food Bank in recent times has done “quite a bit to the facility with the assumption we will stay here.”
The group’s lease, she pointed out, includes an option to buy the 10,000-square-foot property on San Felipe Road.
“This will get us close to where we might be able to do a downpayment if that’s what we decide to do,” she said.
She said there’s a 10-year goal of owning a permanent building and that the landlord “wants us to have” it.
“We’re very, very grateful for all of the support from the community this year,” she added. “It’s been a crazy time and yet people have really stepped up, both in volunteering and donations.”
The possibility for the $150,000 became realistic Thursday, when the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate approved of the spending bill, noted Tom Mentzer, a spokesman for Congressman Sam Farr, D-Carmel.
Other Central Coast projects’ funding earmarked in the bill, according to Farr’s office, include the following:
– Silver Star Gang Prevention and Intervention Program, $1.5 million. Silver Star uses a collaborative approach to prevention and early intervention services to avert and reduce gang association. The program combines probation supervision; educational, vocational and job training; counseling services and truancy abatement, along with mentoring and community outreach strategies, to help decrease gang activity.
– Monterey County Joint Gang Task Force, $500,000. The task force is a countywide collaboration targeted at reducing gang violence throughout Monterey County.
– YWCA of Monterey County, $250,000. The Integrated Community Collaborative to Prevent Domestic Violence will allow the YWCA to expand its direct services for victims of domestic violence in Salinas. The YWCA will expand its prevention and intervention efforts for youth through classroom-based and other programs.
– Monterey County Food Bank, $150,000. These funds will go toward the purchase of equipment and a vehicle.
– Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association, $110,000. These funds will be directed toward ALBA’s Farmworker to Farmer Business Incubator.
– EI Pajaro Community Development Corporation, $90,000. This block of money will go to the CDC’s Commercial Kitchen Business Incubator.
