The Food Bank On TV

A couple weeks ago Sherry Hu from Channel 5 News (local CBS affiliate, KPIX) came to the food bank warehouse to talk about from where the food we give clients comes. This was not a story about the food bank, though; it was about the shocking fact that an educated, housed, white woman "Dumpster dives" for food. She doesn't do it because she can't afford food, but because she doesn't want unpurchased food to go into landfills.


The reason why Hu and a cameraman came out to the food bank was because they were chasing down what happens to the food that doesn't get purchased, and our food bank receives food from Trader Joe's and Safeway (neither of which could be mentioned by name in the story). They came out on one of our "USDA Days," which is the third Wednesday of the month. It's a bigger operation, serving twice the number of people in the same amount of time that we serve at the trailer, with the funds for the program coming from the feds rather than the city. We see some of the same people as we see at the trailer, and we often see the same people month after month.


Hu and the cameraman came late in the day, after 3pm. I wish they had shown up earlier, when we had thirty people either being served or in line waiting to be served. I know that it's better for them that they came when things had quieted down, because the FB director had time to talk to Hu and wouldn't have to shout, but we had only about five clients come while they were there and it happens that the people who agreed to be on camera didn't represent our client base very well.


It's an interesting story, and of course fun to see someone I know on TV. You can read the story here, or click on the "play" button to the right to see the video.