Staff Report
The American Red Cross has honored the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County with the Good Neighbor Partnership Award for its mission and service providing healthy food, and proactive disaster meal planning for our community.
The Foodbank’s partnership with the Red Cross has a long history of essential disaster relief — delivering food to Red Cross shelters, and for distribution in the most critical times of need.
“The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County has demonstrated exceptional initiative in identifying and meeting a community need for a countywide disaster feeding plan, and they did it by working hand-in-hand with the Red Cross every step of the way,” said Jessica Hodge, Red Cross Disaster Program manager.
“During the pandemic, the Foodbank has become a lifeline to many of our more vulnerable community members and we have been honored to work with them.”
After the debris flow in 2018, the Foodbank embarked in a proactive disaster food-planning initiative, helping Santa Barbara County become more prepared. This required a year-long process of working with community partners to write a county Disaster Feeding Plan and establish a Feeding Task Force with the Foodbank, Salvation Army, the Red Cross and others.
The Good Neighbor Partnership Award recognizes a member or team from the community that has made significant contributions to the American Red Cross. The nominee must have:
• Demonstrated exceptional initiative in identifying and meeting a community need through Red Cross services.
• Reflected a positive, visible impact in the community for the American Red Cross.
• Encouraged and promoted excellence in each other and created a working environment that inspires others to strive for and achieve superior work performance through paid and volunteer partnerships.
For more about the American Red Cross, visit redcross.org/centralcalifornia or cruzrojaamericana.org.
