FOOD NOW

Family Services of the Desert’s community food pantry Food Now provides healthy and nutritious food choices for in-need residents of Desert Hot Springs who would otherwise have to go hungry, at NO COST to the client. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, 4050 unduplicated individuals had visited Food Now at least once in search of hunger relief; 1,297 were children. This number represents a staggering 14% of the 28,164 residents of Desert Hot Springs.

A healthy diet is a critical component to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Food Now assists approximately 450 families every week with food assistance that supports a healthy diet. In addition to providing food assistance, Family Services of the Desert desires to strengthen families and build healthier communities by providing the following services for Food Now clients:

• Home Deliveries: Food Now has identified disabled veterans and others who are housebound due to a medical necessity and provides home deliveries of weekly supplemental food assistance.
• Children’s Backpack Feeding Program: Across the country, teachers and school nurses have found that in some instances, Monday morning comes and they are forced to compete with hunger for the attention of their students. More than 18 million children nationwide qualify for free or reduced price meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). These children depend on the federally assisted meal programs for the fuel that they need to get them through the week. The students from a local elementary school benefit from NSLP free- or reduced-price meals while at school to receive the nutrition required for their young minds and bodies to properly develop. What happens to these children when they go home over the weekend? The Food Now Children’s Backpack Feeding Program is part of a solution for children who suffer from hunger and food insecurity on weekends. The Food Now Children’s Backpack Feeding Program is a cooperative between FSOD and the Palm Springs Unified School District and provides selected chronically hungry children with additional nutritional support on weekends.
• Homeless Needs Program: Homelessness presents unique challenges for those who find themselves sleeping in shelters, cars, doorways, tents and ditches in the desert and for food assistance programs trying to help. Clients with no permanent residence typically have no heating or refrigeration capabilities. Food Now provides homeless clients with a daily distribution of special ready-to-eat food packages including sandwiches, salads, fresh fruit and boxed juices. Personal hygiene items and clothing and are distributed as needed.
• Senior Needs Program: Senior clients receiving food assistance from Food Now are typically on a fixed income and live in poverty. Their limited budget makes it difficult to secure adequate food and other living essentials as well. Food Now’s senior clients were surveyed to identify which non-food items the clients felt were vital but difficult to obtain. These items (toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant and soap) are distributed bi-monthly.
• Periodic health screening by a medical doctor: The purpose of the outreach is to identify existing or pre-existing diseases and health risks, specifically obesity and diabetes. Once identified, clients are offered counseling on the importance of healthy life choices including diet. This outreach allows clients to reap the benefits of early health risk detection.
• Weekly outreach: Many Food Now clients are not aware or perhaps do not understand the community resources that are available. Family Services of the Desert brings in a community benefits coordinator once a week to help clients understand and enroll in community benefits available including Edison’s CARE Program, WIC, SNAP, Affordable Health Care and Cover California. Presentations are available in English and Spanish.
• Companion Animal Feeding Program: It has been proven pet that ownership can lead to a healthier lifestyle. A pet can be a good companion. Pets can reduce stress and prevent loneliness —especially if you live alone. The exercise from walking and caring for a pet can help clients achieve and maintain an active lifestyle and promote proper cardiovascular health. Food Now provides weekly cat and dog food assistance for pet owners.