CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In case of a local COVID-19 emergency, the Coastal Bend Food Bank wants to be ready to help.
They are preparing by putting together emergency boxes.
Every year, right before June, the Coastal Bend Food Bank puts together a thousand emergency boxes for the hurricane season.
That timetable moved up because of this coronavirus.
Bea Hanson, the Executive Director of the Coastal Bend Food Bank, said the boxes would be given to those who end up quarantined.
“We are trying to have these emergency boxes ready and if there is a need we can make sure that these people stay home, they don't have to go out to procure some food,” Hanson said.
The boxes contain non-perishable items like beans, rice, canned tuna and chicken.
New this time around they’ll also have cleaning supplies.
“Maybe we can have soap, plenty of liquid soap for families and bleach products that they can use to disinfect,” said Hanson.
So far, the food bank has put together 504 boxes, but the coronavirus panic has made it tough for the organization to reach its goal.
“We would love to prepare a thousand," Hanson said. "Unfortunately, we do not have enough product to do that. One of the problems we are having is locating enough cleaning supplies. It’s sold out everywhere. It says not available. We have gone on the internet, even with companies we normally don’t do business with and we find out that the product is not available."
It’s not just lack of supplies, the food bank also needs funding to pay for whatever cleaning supplies they can find.
Cleaning supplies are not items currently donated to the facility.
“Even though we don’t feel like we have an emergency yet in this area, we need to be prepared and protective mostly of the elderly and disabled,” Hanson said.
The food bank has sent out some requests for funding and is working with the city council for help.
Hanson said the emergency boxes aren’t just for quarantined patients, she said the flu is still a threat, so those patients will get them as well.
Although the Coastal Bend Food Bank’s concern is the 11 counties it serves, Hanson said if another food bank has an emergency, our local food bank backs them up.
Hanson said the food bank works closely with Victoria, San Antonio and Houston.
She also said they need volunteers to help put the emergency boxes together.
If you’d like to help just go to https://coastalbendfoodbank.org/get-involved/
