Alesha Pichler & Emergency Food Bank: Food, Nutrition, Health Education & Hope
Alesha Pichler, community relations manager for San Joaquin County’s Emergency Food Bank, finds that even after ten years, her career still brings her “an overwhelming feeling of joy.” Elaborating, she said, “It comes from seeing the work done here and how it helps families. It is so unique to see our clients personally every day and witness these families who are so grateful for the service we are rendering. By far the largest segment of our clients are working families, seniors and veterans. We often see worried parents who are just trying to feed their children. Paychecks get stretched really thin and too often it just isn’t enough to get by on.”
In addition to her personal interactions with Emergency Food Bank clients and donors, much of Alesha’s work involves organizing special events throughout the year. These events generate the funds required for the nonprofit organization to continue providing food and services to the community. With her team’s assistance she helps orchestrate the November and December turkey and food giveaways, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive in May and the upcoming EFB Golf Tournament in July.
The biggest of these events is the yearly Thanksgiving morning Run & Walk Against Hunger presented by the Aaron Judge ALL RISE Foundation, attended by nearly 3,000 runners last year. This year they hope to top 5,000 as participation keeps growing. This Stockton Thanksgiving Day family tradition consists of a quarter-mile kids fun run, a 5K run/walk and a 10K run. All San Joaquin residents are encouraged to support the food bank by registering.
In addition to event planning, Alesha is always working to get the word out about the many services the Emergency Food Bank offers beyond their daily food box drive-through. From the Golden Hearts program, which delivers food to homebound seniors, to nutritional counseling through community nutrition workshops, in-school cooking programs, an online recipe library, cooking videos and three Mobile Farmer’s Market vans delivering seasonal produce daily to 80 alternating sites around San Joaquin County, there really is something for almost everybody. “The Mobile Farmer’s Market is especially valuable,” she explained. “This program is the first of its kind to serve pockets of San Joaquin County without traditional grocery stores, known as food deserts.” The term refers to areas that have only convenience stores, fast food and liquor stores, making access to fresh, healthy foods difficult for residents in those locales.
To date, the Emergency Food Bank operations have been conducted at their current building, a 7,000-square-foot warehouse on Scotts Avenue. As programs grew and the number of people served increased, a pressing need to expand grew with it. The food bank recently secured the lot directly across the street, and plans are now in place to build an additional, much larger warehouse with refrigeration and freezer walk-ins and loading docks to accommodate semi-trucks. This additional 17,400-square-foot warehouse will serve as the new collection and distribution hub for far more foods and will provide greater support to each program than ever before.
While employees supervise and conduct warehouse activities, Alesha noted it’s the volunteers who show up each day to pack and hand out every box of food. “Without our volunteers we could not do what we do.” She is referring to the boxes of food given to over 400 cars daily, Monday through Friday, each with enough food for a household of four, to last about one and a half weeks. Each household can receive a food box up to three times per month. “People are really surprised to learn that we only ask for a photo ID and some proof that they live in San Joaquin County, a piece of mail addressed to them, for example. It’s that simple,” she said.
Since 1968, when the Emergency Food Bank began, its scope of services has grown to include much more than providing only food. “We help people improve their health through our nutrition program, Food as Medicine, which has been instrumental to many people reducing their A1C levels, blood glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, prediabetes, and so much more,” Alesha explained. “The more I talk to the community, the more I realize how people don’t quite realize all that we offer. A lot more people could be helped if they just knew these services were available.”
As the Food Bank prepares to expand, Alesha hopes more individuals and businesses will support the organization. Whether they volunteer, support the Run & Walk Against Hunger or make a gift, community members can help ensure that their neighbors have access to nutrition, education and healthy food.
To donate, participate or learn more, please visit or call stocktonfoodbank.org, (209) 464-7369, 7 W. Scotts Avenue, Stockton, California. Pantry is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
