Hundreds of Yolo County Residents Get Drought-Relief Food Aid

Thousands of boxes of food aid are making their way to people affected by the drought in Yolo County. At one of the distribution sites in Winters, it's clear that the boxes full of canned vegetables, spaghetti, peanut butter and other non-perishables sure does weigh a lot.

This free food isn’t part of Yolo County Food Bank’s normal distribution.

It’s part of a state-funded program for people who have less work or no work because of the drought. 

Over the past month, fourteen hundred people in Yolo County have benefitted.

Stephanie Sanchez with the Food Bank says at first they weren’t sure where the need was, so they decided to distribute at 12 sites.

“We’re trying to make it available to everybody, but especially the very rural areas where we don’t have a lot of food available as food resources go,” says Sanchez.

Thirty million dollars of state money is going towards food aid through the drought relief package signed by California Governor Jerry Brown. 

So far twenty-four counties have been included based on their unemployment rates and number of agricultural workers. Sanchez says the free food helps this community. 

“If there was only one person working in the household, and they have reduced hours, that means they have a reduced paycheck, reduced funds to purchase food, and instead of having to figure out ok, should I put gas, should I pay medical bills this month, they won’t have to think about food.

The Yolo County Food Bank will continue distributing until early August.

The County with the highest number of drought relief food boxes? Fresno.

The map below shows how many boxes have been allocated to the 24 California counties that have received food aid.