Meeting Yolo County Residents’ Most Urgent Needs
The Short Term Emergency Aid Committee (STEAC) helps meet the immediate needs of Yolo County’s most vulnerable populations, and among their most basic needs is food. STEAC’s approach to stepping up for schoolchildren, as well as Yolo County’s senior, disabled, and unhoused neighbors, is measured and responsive to community needs—even in times of upheaval.
Three programs encompass the methods of distributing much-needed food to low-income residents: food pantry appointments, delivery to low-income housing sites, and packs for children and unhoused clients. The STEAC Food Pantry is a by-appointment food pantry in Davis that serves about 100 households monthly. Recipients include households of various sizes and individuals. The delivery program takes that same pantry food and delivers it to six senior and low-income housing sites — five in Davis and one in Winters.
“The food supplied by the pantry and delivery programs is a mixture of shelf stable pantry staples like canned goods, pasta, rice, peanut butter, other non-perishable items that could be versatile, and we also provide produce items, and that includes baby carrots, lettuce, potatoes, and onions, along with eggs, frozen meat and bread products,” Hana King, Food Program Coordinator with STEAC, said. STEAC staff and volunteers have created a cookbook of simple recipes based on typical ingredients people would receive from the pantry that maybe clients are less familiar with using.
The third distribution method are the Packs Programs, which are unique in Yolo County and include packages of shelf-stable food items for two groups—Kids Pack Program and Homeless Pack Program.
Kids Packs provide about 400 bags of food weekly to Davis, Winters, and Woodland students in grades pre-K to 12th who rely on subsidized school meals. These packs include kid-friendly snacks like granola bars and apple sauce, a main course like boxed mac and cheese, and a protein like canned chicken or tuna. “The Kids Pack Program is really intended to bridge that gap over the weekend when children may have more limited access to food without school-provided meals,” Hana said.
Homeless Packs provide about 240 bags of food each month to three nonprofit partners that work with unhoused clients. These packs are tailored to the specific needs of unhoused individuals, and contain cans with pull tops, and soft foods that are easier for people with dental issues.
Debra Denton, a 20-plus-year volunteer serving as the food pantry manager and STEAC Board President, said the organization is responsive to the distinct needs of those they serve for all food programs.
“We’re constantly interacting with the case worker, the social worker, the partner, the end user, to see what’s needed,” she said. “We don’t want to dump off food that’s not appropriate for the clientele.”
The organization obtains food through donations and weekly purchases. The largest food drives are the Scouting Drive and Postal Drive in the Spring and the Realtor Drive in the Fall—as well as the Green Bag Community Neighborhood pick-up held every two months. STEAC regularly buys food items at the Yolo Food Bank Partner Agency Store, Grocery Outlet in Davis, and bulk purchases from CalFoods Logistics.
A recent cost analysis showed the value of the food provided at the pantry is roughly $85 worth of groceries per month for a one-to-two person household, and up to $150 in groceries for homes with five or more people.
“We really are looking for bang for our buck by working with our community, and working with nonprofits, where we can buy food at good prices, so we can offer more services,” Debra said.
What makes it all come together are the many helping hands of volunteers who have been the heart of the organization from its original start in 1967 to current times.
A key partnership to the organization’s ability to support community members is the Church of St. Martin—which houses the food pantry.
“It is touching when food pantry clients who are going through hardships like recovering from recent surgery or cancer treatments, have an unexpected bill, are experiencing a difficult divorce or a job change state that the food STEAC provides makes all the difference in making it through their situation,” Debra said.
Currently, STEAC is seeking volunteers to support their staff of six, as well as donations of money and non-perishable food.
