White Pony Express sends ready-to-eat meals and cash donations to Paradise fire victims

Starting Nov. 14, White Pony Express, the 2018 California Nonprofit of the Year in California Senate District 7, commenced sending a refrigerated truck daily with perishable ready-to-eat food and envelopes with donated cash to aid the fire victims in the Paradise area. WPE intends to continue making these runs until there is no longer an acute need for area fire victims.

WPE volunteers Jim May and Eric Cox drove a refrigerated van with food and donations to a little-known town called Brownsville Nov. 14 where the manager, Kathleen, has been putting up about 50 evacuees in her small motel. "She fixes food for them in the morning and the townspeople do it in the evening," May said. "The ready-to-eat sandwiches and salads that White Pony Express brought were enough to provide them with lunches for several days. In Brownsville, we handed out envelopes of money, which is desperately needed for necessities."

The ready-to-eat meals are from the regular donations made daily to WPE's Food Rescue program. These donations have been providing a substantial amount of food that is distributed by WPE to the hungry in Contra Costa County.

"Going on to Oroville, we found people camped out in parking lots," May continued. "Fortunately, we were able to provide food to all of those who needed it. It was a wonderful experience to be a part of this."

These food and cash donation trips to the impacted areas are being carried out by WPE's Food Rescue Program staff and volunteers. The Food Rescue Program picks up quality surplus food each day from supermarkets, restaurants, and farmers' markets and then sorts and delivers that food to shelters, churches and other facilities that feed the hungry in our communities. All of this is done free of charge. In five years, WPE has rescued more than 7.5 million pounds (equivalent to about 6.3 million meals) of fresh, nutritious food that would otherwise go to waste.

Says WPE Executive Director Gary Conner, "Although we principally serve Contra Costa County, White Pony Express is most grateful to be able to send needed food to the families in the Paradise area, who are now coping with survival in the aftermath of the fires. It is important that we remember and help serve our brothers and sisters in Paradise, many of whom have lost everything."



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