By Pamela Dozois
news@santaynezvalleystar.com
The River of Giving group was created to provide groceries and paper goods to the hard-working families in restaurants and the hospitality industry who are temporarily out of work due to the COVID-19 crisis.
“St. Mark’s is generously providing soup to seniors and families on Tuesdays and Saturdays and is filling the need for housebound people who are unable to cook. We are fulfilling an opposite need,” said Maili Halme, coordinator of the project. “We are providing food for families with an average six household members and some with 8 to 12 in one household. Because our focus group originally was on cooks, we knew that if we provided wholesale, raw ingredients that they would be able to prepare that food to feed their families for a week.”
Maili Halme, coordinator of the project, explained that the group is called The River of Giving because the money flows from donations though the group and directly to the hard working families who need help for the first time in their lives.
Each delivery provides two kinds of protein. The first week was tri-tip and chicken, the second week was pork shoulder and ground beef and the third week consisted of chicken and ranchera beef. In addition to the meat, the deliveries contain milk, eggs, cheese, butter, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage or lettuce, onions, cilantro, jalapeños, potatoes, rice, beans, bread, apples, oranges or tangerines, and strawberries which were generously donated. Also provided is toilet paper, hand soap, paper towels and optional items such as pineapples, melons, cooking oil, mayonnaise, salt and laundry detergent. A separate donor specifically provides diapers, and another donates dog and cat food.
“We are delivering to 61 families (approximately 350 people) in the Santa Ynez Valley as well as Lompoc and Los Alamos,” Halme said. “We knew we were not reaching everyone, so we recently partnered with The Ranch Church. They have a meeting place in the former auto parts store location on Fir Street behind the hardware store and next to the laundromat.
The next River of Giving event will be from 2 – 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, in both Solvang and Buellton locations. Since this story was written there has been an additional location pop up from 2 – 4 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara.
“It is an ideal location in walking distance for the residences of the core of our work force in Solvang. Recently we provided food for 40 families (an additional 200+ people) and we ran out in 15 minutes. It was our first day and now that we know the demand is high, we are planning for 500 on Thursday. The shipment for Thursday will include: 500 10-pound bags of potatoes, 2,000 bags of carrots, 480 cauliflower, 600 heads of lettuce, 600 bags of celery, and then pallets of oranges, turnips, onions, tomatoes and peppers. We will also include chickens and ground beef, rice, beans, tortillas, and bread.”
The River of Giving is providing food for families with an average six household members and some with eight to 12 in one household.
Halme explained that the group is called The River of Giving because the money flows from donations though the group and directly to the hard-working families who need help for the first time in their lives. Food is purchased wholesale and in bulk, so the cost is very low. It is an all-volunteer group so 100 percent of the donations go directly to food for the families.
“As one woman said to me, ‘I’ve never needed food nor asked for help before. If I ever needed anything, I just got another job. This has been very humbling, but I have to feed my children and my parents live with us too,’” Halme said. “She lost both of her jobs because of the restaurant closures and her husband lost both of his jobs. All of the people we are donating too are looking forward to our town reopening so we can all go back to work.”
“The tears of gratitude from the families we are reaching have been immense,” she continued. “These are the people who feed us year in and year out at the restaurants we love. It is an honor to be able to give something back to them in this time of great need.”
The group has partnered with two nonprofits so that donations can be made directly to these 501c3 organizations. They will receive 100 percent of the funds donated to either group on their behalf. Please make a note on your donation specifying that it is for “The River of Giving.”
Donations can be made to: The Santa Ynez Valley Senior Citizen Foundation, P.O. Box 1946, Buellton, CA 93427 (TAX ID: 95-3169593) or to The Ranch Church, P.O. Box 679, Solvang, CA 93464 (TAX ID 26-0373981)
For more information or to let Halme know about other families they can help, call her at 805-705-1994, or email mailihalme@gmail.com.
Please watch our video on this incredible community group!
