The Carson Valley Community Food Closet is relaxing its eligibility requirements for individuals and families in Douglas County who need its services.
During the Food Closet’s April Board of Directors meeting directors voted to repeal the Food Closet’s income threshold, which had restricted the Food Closet’s services to those families earning under 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.
With that vote, any resident of Douglas County can now avail themselves of the assistance provided by the Food Closet.
“There are nearly 5,400 residents of Douglas County who experience food insecurity on a regular basis, but only 51 percent of those people qualified under the old income threshold,” said Chairman Michael Morton. “With the continued generosity of the community, the Food Closet has the operational and financial bandwidth to ensure that all of our friends and neighbors always know where their next meal is coming from.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food insecurity refers to a family’s lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods.
Food-insecure families are not necessarily food insecure all the time, but may reflect a family’s need to make decisions regarding which basic need to fulfill, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods.
“It is no secret that the pandemic exposed inequities in the food systems that serve this country,” explained Executive Director Sarah Sanchez. “The staff and volunteers of the Food Closet used this exposure as an opportunity to meet the needs of the community by creating new, accessible food assistance programs.”
One of the new programs that the Food Closet offers is called Fresh Tuesdays, which offers culturally specific foods and access to Partnership Douglas County’s Community Health Workers who work on-site to aid individuals and families to gain access to all services offered by the Food Closet and other community resources.
The Food Closet is open from 12:30-4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Information on its programs and services can be found at thefoodcloset.org.