FARSB Awarded Non-Profit of the Year 2024 by Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce
- Rachel Bonilla
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 4
Friday, April 11th, 2025
Photo Credits: FARSB
Great Scott!
FARSB is thrilled to announce that the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce honored us as Non-Profit of the Year 2024! Alongside winners like John and Janet Gless, who took home Citizen of the Year 2024, FARSB was honored at the Chambers' Inaugural Celebration, which was Back to the Future themed - hence the classic car and jukebox in the background!
FARSB CEO, Carolyn Fajardo, and Board Chair, Danielle Oehlman, pictured above, attended the event and accepted the award on the food bank's behalf, stating that the hard work and dedication of all staff made it possible to receive this honor.
With over 300,000 community members relying on FARSB every month for vital resources, getting accolades is not a goal, but being recognized for the work we do in our service area ensures our team knows that the community we serve notices what's being done behind the scenes.
FARSB's 2024 Highlights
If you haven't kept up on what happened in 2024 at FARSB, we wanted to share some highlights that allowed us to expand our programs, extend our reach into the community, and acquire new spaces to grow, along with our community's needs.
Hunger Resource Center
In June, the official opening of our new FARSB Hunger Resource Center kicked off! This building houses administrative staff, a SNAP Resource Office, and a Learning Center. The SNAP office allows community members to get assistance applying for SNAP or CalFresh, and the Learning Center is utilized for staff and partner meetings, team-building activities, and our child nutrition courses.
This building, as of January 2025, now has a client-choice pantry, which was in the planning stages much of 2024.
Disaster Relief
Our partnership with ALDI led to a packing event with their company's staff volunteers who worked with FARSB to pack disaster relief boxes for community members affected by Hurricane Helene.
In just a few hours, this group was able to pack 22,000 pounds of disaster relief items that would be sent to those affected by natural disasters, assisting the Feeding America network of food banks in those areas.
FARSB was asked for assistance after the fires in Southern California affected numerous areas of the Inland Empire. Multiple fires did not require evacuations, but the Airport Fire had several neighborhoods in Lake Elsinore and the surrounding areas were under evacuation orders.
In response, we delivered food boxes and water bottles to evacuees housed at the Lake Community Center during the Airport Fire, including some who had to shelter for weeks as the fire burned for 26 days.
Holiday Distributions
Lastly, special distributions that help FARSB end the year on a positive note served hundreds of community members across the IE. FARSB does two drive-through food distributions for the holiday season for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Approximately 300 people were served at each holiday distribution, with thousands more being served through our food pantry partners across Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Honoring Our Mission: Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads
FARSB has one goal: To feed the IE! With this in mind, every decision we make as an organization comes down to whether we are serving our community members to the best of our abilities. Being honored is a reminder that our mission is a difficult one, and takes lots of people working together to the same end.
Accolades are not expected, but always appreciated, and being named Non-Profit of the Year 2024 by the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce is a wonderful show of confidence for the work being done as a food bank and a nonprofit.
From all FARSB Staff - Thank you to the Riverside Chamber!
If you'd like to get involved in our mission, please visit: FeedingIE.org/volunteer to find more information about volunteer opportunities.
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