Reader Scott is a volunteer at a California food bank near Palm Springs California. He shares the following comments and video of him driving past a line of up to 150 cars.
Reader Comments
Hello Mish.
I have followed you for 12-15 years (maybe longer). Thank you for all the informative articles you have written over the years. I definitely appreciate you and your work.
I wanted to share a video I took while driving in to volunteer for a local food bank event this morning. I volunteer regularly but for this specific distribution location, it was my second time.
I live comfortably in the Coachella Valley, beyond Palm Springs, the valleys roots are in agricultural. We have a large Hispanic community that work long hours, sometimes in rough weather conditions (heat, wind) to support the valley’s tourism, service and agricultural industries. Although very proud, I would consider many of them as working poor.
I have noticed over the past year that the lines at these distribution events are getting longer. Today, I counted 80+ cars, many which contain multiple families. There were another 20-30 cars that arrived after I drove in. The first vehicles arrive 1.5 to 2 hours before the volunteers start the distribution. Each family checks in and is cleared for receiving the distribution.
The “check-in lead” estimated 150 cars in the line.
The high school and the grounds where this is held looks like a third world set of buildings. It’s sad. We should do better than this.
Scott
Thanks Scott!