BENICIA — In rare quiet moments, or more accurately, less chaotic moments, Heather Pierini reflects on her own difficult times.
A single mother with a daughter, they moved from house to house, couch to house, relying on friends to help them find a place to stay.
“When COVID-19 hit, I kept thinking, ‘What would have happened if I were a single mom?'” Pierini said.
Instead, when the pandemic hit, it was Pierini who reached out to those in need.
In 2023, Pierini and her Food is Free Bay Area organization fed 100,000 people as the pandemic officially ended in May of that year and the need was greater than ever.
Two starting points: Chowchilla and Texas.
Frank and Betty Rodrian had a garden in Chowchilla.
Pierini, who was just a young girl at the time, remembers that her grandparents “used to share the food they grew with the neighbors.” Their generosity planted a seed within her that would grow beyond any inspired vision.
But she likes what the Rodrians have shared with her, something her biological grandparents, Dick and Ima Heinrich of Fresno, also “taught us to serve the community.” It was also a lesson for me.
But now her grandparents might be asking, “Where did she get the idea to share food across three counties?”
Actually, it started almost 15 years ago. She discovered the Food is Free Project, started by John VanDusen Edwards in Austin, Texas.
“He just wanted to bring his neighbors and community together by growing food in his front yard,” Pierini said.
Neighbors grew a variety of crops and shared them among the entire group.
“I really liked the idea,” Pierini said.
So she set up a table in front of her home on K Street in Benicia and filled it with fruit from her trees and vegetables from her garden. Over time, books and other items, some donated, were given away for free as well.
Pierini admitted he was more motivated by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned longstanding regulations on campaign finance and turned corporations into people, at least in Pierini’s eyes. ing.
She agreed with the court, but wondered, “Why can’t my garden be human?”
Pierini then created a website, had a little fun with the garden person concept, and expanded his food stall business.
“Then I saw people stopping to see if there was food there,” Pierini said, and began a journey to find a greater way to meet those needs.
Her grandparents’ seeds began to grow.
School closures: what to do with food
Pierini said one of the first steps was to raise money to buy groceries, and the Vallejo grocery store was able to offer lower prices to the growing organization.
“Then we delivered (food) to the community,” Pierini said. “Then we did a pop-up stand. We put up a table with food in the park.”
But the need outstripped the ability to get food out.
That’s when Pieni learned about the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s response to the pandemic. Restaurants, hotels, and other food and beverage establishments that “partner with national, regional, and regional distributors whose employees have been significantly impacted by the pandemic to purchase produce and distribute it to those in need.” Closure of. ”
Some of that was food that was being sent to schools that are currently closed.
“That food had to go somewhere,” Pierini said.
What she quickly realized was that it had to be sent to a nonprofit organization that she didn’t have, and it had to be delivered by truck.
So she partnered with the nonprofit organization Wahio of American Canyon and worked with Ben and Marian Buggs at Faith Food Fridays in Vallejo to find a place to drop off the food.
“I think he looked at me like I was crazy,” Pierini said. “But he said, ‘Okay, let’s do this.'”
The first event was called “Milk-A-Palooza,” and involved distributing thousands of gallons of milk to 50 agencies that could serve the community. Unfortunately the truck never showed up.
Undeterred, the delivery was rescheduled and Pierini was about to experience for the first time what his inspired vision looked like.
“For the first milk delivery, when the truck actually arrived, it was extraordinary just to see (4,000 gallons) being unloaded by hand,” she said.
The USDA program ran from May 2020 to May 2021 and resulted in 3.5 million pounds of food delivered to local communities and new seeds planted.
Mr. Pierini has built relationships with food banks and other food providers in Solano and Contra Costa, and importantly, connected with Steve Hale at the Solano County Fairgrounds to help Food Is Free Solano. It also provided a central location to distribute food. Park It Market, a mini-farmers market program, was conducted in collaboration with sponsoring health organizations that used food stalls as a means to attract people to programs and information.
“We would never have been able to do this without them,” Pierini said of the venue staff.
“Initially, we served 40 families a day, twice a week, and now we serve nearly 400 families,” she said.
Five of those families arrive in one car, with one representative each. Pierini said that to her, they represent the neighborhoods and communities they are connected to.
Along the way, Pierini expanded the organization’s reach by taking advantage of the state’s new Good Stewardship Food Distribution Act, which aims to take organic food sources out of landfills and redistribute them.
This includes grocery stores, restaurants and similar stores, as well as businesses like Thistle in Vacaville, which makes high-end ready-to-eat foods.
Now Food is Free Solano, which has added connections to Napa and Contra Costa counties to become Food is Free Bay Area, collects 600 pounds of cooked thistle meals each week.
“Any product that doesn’t sell that week is loaded into a refrigerated van,” Pierini said.
The food is sent to cold storage, tested for suitability for human consumption, and sent back to the community. Food that does not qualify but is good for animals is sent to farms and similar locations for livestock.
Even items that cannot be reused are recycled with the help of Recology, she said.
The refrigerated van and other essentials were purchased using American Rescue Plan Act funds provided by Solano County, another federal program in response to the pandemic.
Pierini recently told the supervisory board that this has become her “life’s work.”
In an interview, she said, “My heart is full every day.”
Chowchilla – Back to Texas roots
Pierini has not forgotten his original intentions.
One of her programs is to have residents donate food from their fruit and nut trees and vegetables from their gardens. If they are unable to do the work, Food is Free volunteers will come and harvest the food on their behalf.
Pierini had to learn about food safety regulations because there are traps when collecting such food for distribution. The bottom line is that if food is given in good faith and distributed in good faith – if everyone is convinced that the food is healthy – then it works.
“Sure, I pay a lot of money for insurance, but that’s the world we live in today,” Pierini said.
She is also starting a summer meal program for out-of-school students in Benicia, one of the few communities without such a program. Children should not be hungry.
“I want to level the playing field. I want people to understand that we’re all going to be in trouble at some point,” Pierini said.
She currently has a staff of seven, mostly part-timers, and dozens of volunteers. But there is never enough money. This is especially true for the monetary donations needed to purchase food.
