The book chronicles the evolutionary phases of the Food Bank of Yolo County. The author breaks up the history of the Food Bank into three distinct epochs or phases. The reader will get a good overview of the evolution of a successful nonprofit; from fledgling start-up to an organization that has a solid foundation from which to build its staying power for years to come.

From Pantry to Food Bank: The First Forty Years

A History of the Food Bank of Yolo CountyBy Shipley Walters

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Shipley Walters
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-1570-5

Contents

Foreword...................................................................xiChapter I In the Beginning...............................................1Chapter II The Coalition's First Ten Years................................11Chapter III The Hunger Coalition in the 1980s..............................23Chapter IV The Food Bank Begins to Evolve.................................31Chapter V Troubling Times for the Food Bank..............................41Chapter VI The Food Bank's New President: Cass Sylvia.....................53Chapter VII Transformation of Board and Staff..............................67

Chapter One

In the Beginning

It started with an idea. Why not feed the hungry people in our own neighborhood, city, and county? A few individuals joined together and began collecting bread, fruit, and vegetables from stores, farms and backyard gardens. The volunteers gave the food to mothers with hungry children and fathers unable to provide adequately for their families. That was in Davis in 1970. Now in 2009 that original idea not only lives on but is the driving force behind a successful business that provides food to hungry people all over Yolo County.

Where did the idea come from? The 1960s in the United States were tumultuous times. During John Kennedy's presidency there was a feeling of optimism that bright ideas and hard work could solve the problems of the world. Young people, including many from the Davis campus, flocked to join the Peace Corps to help those in need in Africa and South America. Others devoted themselves to environmental causes designed to save the planet. Then President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and the assassinations of his brother Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. soon followed. The grief and confusion caused by those murders and the unpopular war in Viet Nam generated widespread distrust of the U.S. government, and young people demonstrated violently on college campuses across the country. In response, campus leaders urged students to volunteer for worthwhile causes, and churches urged members to care for those in need in their community. In Washington, D.C. President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty and in the years ahead, Congress initiated new programs to help the hungry: Food Stamps, School Breakfasts, the WIC program for pregnant and nursing mothers and their young children, and Meals on Wheels for the elderly.

In 1968 CBS showed a special report on "Hunger in America" that was widely watched and discussed. The film painted a devastating portrait of poverty in cities and rural areas. Public awareness of the poor in America grew, and on December 2, 1969, in response to political pressure from churches and 79 national organizations, President Richard Nixon convened a White House Conference on Hunger. Locally the Davis Community Church was actively promoting awareness of the hungry and homeless in Yolo County, and church members were attending meetings to talk about ways to help. On January 17, 1970, the Center for Community Development of the UC Davis Cooperative Extension sponsored a conference, "The Politics of Hunger." The purpose of the conference was to "bring together people from all over California to discuss issues and initiate a unified effort to end the problem of hunger in our state." Panels and speakers included UC Davis professors and students, California Senator George Moscone, National Council on Hunger and Malnutrition Director John Kramer, and representatives of the national media, farm workers, State Public Health, and California Rural Legal Assistance. More than 700 people from all over Yolo County, and beyond the County, attended the one-day conference. According to Dorothy Laben, one of the participants, "At the end of the day it was decided that each county would form a coalition against hunger, and the Yolo County Coalition Against Hunger was born."

FORMATION OF THE YOLO COUNTY COALITION AGAINST HUNGER

There was a follow-up meeting on the UC Davis campus the following week on January 24, 1970, attended by 35 Yolo County individuals interested in starting a coalition on hunger. They received legal advice from Kellis Parker, Director of the Martin Luther King Program at the UCD Law School, and practical advice from Eliner Martin of Bryte. Mrs. Martin, the mother of ten children, energetically promoted the idea that the real force behind any coalition is the idea of cooperation, and she immediately led efforts to set up a county committee. A little more than a week later, on Feb. 3, 1970, the first meeting of the Yolo County Coalition Against Hunger was held. True to Mrs. Martin's idea, representatives from a variety of local agencies attended, among them: Art Williams from the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO); Rick Gonzales from the Concilio; Karen Woodbury from the University Cooperative Extension; Judy Cromwell from the National Council on Hunger and Malnutrition; and Gilbert Matta from the Yolo County Welfare Department. Also attending were local interested citizens: Frances Rudert and Dorothy Laben, Davis; Muriel Brandt, El Macero; William F. Scott, Woodland; Eliner Martin, Bryte; and Debbie Dillon. (There may have been others, but formal minutes of the meeting are missing.) At that meeting Bill Scott and Debbie Dillon were elected temporary co-chairs of the coalition, and plans for a meeting in March were formulated. The coalition was up and running!

On March 16, 1970, the Coalition met together under the chairmanship of Eliner Martin. The group first heard a report by Nadine Noelting, a UCD student, on school lunch programs in Yolo County. They then agreed to begin work on drawing up non-profit corporation papers. Permanent officers of the Coalition would be elected at the next meeting, and Finance, Emergency Food and Publicity committees would be appointed.

Although a committee, headed by Kellis Parker of the UCD Law School, soon began preparing language for Articles of Incorporation, it appears that the Coalition was far more interested in feeding the poor and teaching people about good nutrition than in legal paperwork. For some reason, it took a year before the necessary documents were prepared. The Articles of Incorporation of the Yolo County Coalition Against Hunger were formally signed by Paul Gutierrez, Donald E. Mason, and Dorothy Lobb Laben on April 26, 1971, and filed with the California Secretary of State on June 1, 1971. According to the Articles of Incorporation, "The specific and primary purposes are to initiate, coordinate, sponsor, promote, and carry out plans, policies, and activities for the elimination of hunger and malnutrition, and to aid, assist and foster the planning, re-planning and improvement of living conditions in Yolo County, California, all for the purpose of combating hunger and malnutrition and securing adequate diets, community facilities, and other related facilities, services, and conditions, economic and otherwise, conducive to the progress and general welfare of the community." In practical terms this meant working with existing groups by exploring food sources, supplementing the supplies of existing groups, and promoting good nutrition by supplying information and using standards of good nutrition as guidelines for the purchase of food.

By June 1970 the...