A Simple Gesture – Neighbors Feeding Neighbors

Small gestures can produce big results. Bob Irvine, the executive director of California Vocations, Inc., knows this firsthand. He is also Volunteer Coordinator for A Simple Gesture, a grassroots food donation program in Paradise and Magalia. A Simple Gesture is a non-profit organization run entirely by volunteers and is wholly dependent on those town residents who want to make a difference in their communities. “It is an opportunity for the community to get involved with the local solution to hunger,” Bob says, adding, “The best part about the program is that someone is able to eat today that otherwise may not.”

A Simple Gesture keeps seven food pantries in the area stocked – the generosity of residents and the diligent work of volunteers keeps the shelves stocked for their less fortunate neighbors. In Paradise and Magalia that’s 23,000 pounds of food with every pick-up; six pick-ups a year equals 135,000 pounds of food annually!

The simplicity of the program is humbling and the results awe-inspiring. Residents ask for a “Cool Green Bag,” a large green fabric shopping bag with a tag detailing the pickup schedule. Over the course of two months, folks go shopping and pick up an extra non-perishable food item or common toiletry item and begin filling up their Cool Green Bag. On pick-up day, once every other month, 70 volunteer drivers collect more than 1,800 bags from front doors and deliver them to the local food pantries.

Rotarian Joe Rivers and his wife brought the admirable program from its inception in Ashland, Oregon to Paradise in 2010. The couple worked long hours to establish it and soon California Vocations, a local non-profit organization that provides support to disabled adults, became involved. CalVoc now manages the program. Fifty of their 70 clients help staff the operation by dropping off Cool Green Bags to those who want to participate, table-sitting at events, and helping pick up filled bags from doorsteps.

Melissa Crick, the day program coordinator at CalVoc, believes ardently in the program. She sees the difference it makes. “The most impactful part, one hundred percent of the time, is the day we deliver the green bags to the pantry. Pantries are always empty, we come in with hundreds and hundreds of bags and stock the shelves. I go away seeing the need, just two months prior we filled the same shelves and you come back and see it all gone. An incredible amount of food disappears from those shelves.”

Melissa also hears from many families who want to participate. She encounters them every time she is out in the community talking about the program, either at events or in the schools meeting with the Boys & Girls Clubs. “A number of our donors are everyday families. This is a family activity. The moms will tell me ‘I love this program because I can show my children that not everyone has what we have, this is how we can give back.’” Melissa says that families use the Cool Green Bags as a teachable moment, “Kids can choose little toys or Paw Patrol fruit snacks. Parents encourage their children to put a few things in the bag that other kids will like. “At Christmas time many families will put in gifts, children’s books, hat, and scarf sets. Sometimes even monetary donations. These are things that make a difference.”

If you would like a Cool Green Bag for your family to make a difference with, request one on their website. A Simple Gesture is always in need of volunteer drivers, too!