SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – There are some new hands-on deck helping pack a pressing need for the community.
“We are now in week 2, having the National Guard on site volunteering or working in both of our warehouses, our main warehouse in Miramar, and also our warehouse in Vista,” Casey Castillo, CEO of San Diego Food Bank, said.
Castillo said that there are eight members in the San Diego location and two others in the San Diego Food Bank's location in Vista.
“To help augment the amount of volunteer force they have here to help build additional food supplies to help those in need, in addition to the folks that are affected by the SNAP or the government shutdown,” Command Sgt. Major Claudia Ramirez of the California Army National Guard said when asked about their mission for this deployment.
Ramirez said that the Cal Guard members have been there since last Thursday.
“It's been very, like, dynamic on a daily basis based on what forecasted support they're looking at. Like, this past weekend when they did the Snapdragon event, they already understood what they needed, and the soldiers came in and they got to it with the volunteers,” Ramierz said.
“We were able to reach over 2000 households in just a matter of hours. And those National Guard members in the week leading up to it really were instrumental in us being able to have thousands of bags of food ready for these families,” Castillo said.
If anyone knows what those families are going through right now, it’s Ramirez.
“Since October 1st hit, I’m a supervisor for a contracting team. So essentially, I had to lay off all my workforce on a furlough status, and I was considered essential. So, I have had to cover down for my workforce on essential need for free because I'm not getting paid,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez told ABC 10News she’s navigating the nuances of the government shutdown as she supplements some things she needs to during this time.
But Ramirez said being on a mission to help out those in her hometown, San Diego, is humbling.
“As a guardsman, my whole career, I've never really had the opportunity to get activated to support my local community. It's always been pulled to support other communities up north, like LA or further north, because of fires, floods, or civil disturbances,” Ramirez said. “But for this mission and being very different, it’s very humbling because we're giving back to those in need.”
