Come Spend Your Day With Us!
Volunteers are an integral part of our food distribution and help bring our mission to life! Whether you have a half day or a full day to spare, we could use and appreciate your help.
WAYS WE
SERVE
Community Partner Program
We partner with over 250 local nonprofit organizations who operate food pantries, soup kitchens, and hunger-relief programs throughout Riverside and San Bernardino County neighborhoods. Quality control is practiced on all donations to ensure food safety and compliance standards are in place to protect people facing hunger. We provide training opportunities, limited deliveries, and limited cash and in-kind grants to further support our community partners in their efforts to strengthen and expand their local hunger relief efforts.
Mobile Pantry
Serving predominantly rural areas, the Mobile Pantry program delivers food to underserved neighborhoods that have a high incidence of poverty and lack consistent access to full-service grocery stores or other sources of fresh, healthy food.
If would like to learn more about a specific food distribution site listed, please contact the location directly.
Food RX
The link between hunger and health have become increasingly apparent. As a result, we have developed strategic partnerships with local healthcare providers to collect data and distribute food to improve the health of our community.
Together, we have built on-site food pantries, food security screenings, nutrition education, and nutritious food for patients. Food RX brings nutrient-rich groceries to food-insecure patients directly at discharge or at the end of an appointment – at no cost.
Grab n' Go For Kids
The Grab n’ Go Program, formerly known as Kids Markets, helps alleviate child hunger in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties by providing nutritious, healthy food to low-income students and their families. Distributions are currently set up like a drive-through at school sites. We provide and facilitate food deliveries to participating school districts to ensure numerous school sites can benefit from each district’s partnership. Grab n’ Go sites are consistently in the same locations at each campus and have routine distribution schedules.
Military Veteran Program
The Inland Empire is home to several military bases and thousands of currently serving and retired service members. In partnership with local military organizations, we support family members of active-duty military and veteran households facing food insecurity through our Military Veteran Program (MVP). Most MVP sites receive a FARSB food delivery every month, ensuring regular access to high-quality food commodities. Delivered items have included shelf stable boxes, holiday meal kits, turkeys, and grocery gift cards.
.png)
Homebound Emergency Relief Outreach (HERO)
For thousands of homebound residents in the Inland Empire, a monthly knock on the door comes with more than just smiles from a neighborhood volunteer, it brings healthy nutritious food in a little brown box (and so much more)! Every food delivery made through HERO benefits a household whose residents are home-bound. Deliveries include a balance of nutritious foods, shelf-stable goods, and other essential items as they become available. Since its March 2020 launch, the HERO program has assisted over 8,000 food-insecure homes in the Inland Empire.
Retail Rescue
With our goal to feed more people and fewer landfills, we work with local donors and retail partners to help provide a portion of our partner organizations get the food they need. Retail Rescue entails direct food pick-ups from neighborhood grocery stores and helping community partners secure more food faster for their clients at no cost. This exclusive program also helps grocery retailers benefit from reduced disposal costs and donation tax advantages while supporting their local hunger-fighting programs.
Nutrition Markets
The mission of the Nutrition Market is to help alleviate hunger in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties through the provision of food to at-risk families directly through community health clinics. The Nutrition Market is located on the grounds of partner’s health clinic location intended to provide a more readily accessible source of food assistance to low-income families.
If would like to learn more about a specific food distribution site listed, please contact the location directly.
CalFresh
CalFresh is a federal nutrition program designed to move clients towards self-sufficiency. It is more commonly known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamps. Our CalFresh team provides application assistance for eligible community members. On average, the FARSB team submits over 1,000 applications every year on behalf of Riverside and San Bernardino County residents, ensuring families receive needed EBT cards to supplement costs for nutrition dense foods.
College Pantry Program
Pursuing post-secondary education can be challenging when you’re having to choose between purchasing books and groceries. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we hosted regular famer’s market style food distributions at local colleges and universities. College students and their families attending community college, four-year universities, and continuing education could take home healthy, nutritious food at no cost to them on a regular schedule. As schools implement in-person instruction, we intend to be a continue source of food on campus.
The Goodness in Food
This seasonal program introduces fruits and vegetables to elementary-aged youth through fun-interactive lesson plans every week for four weeks. Following a recurring schedule, kids can socialize with others their age and learn about healthy eating and simple gardening. Students grow seasonal produce items, take home recipes, and independently learn the sustainable benefits of increasing things. Lessons take place at our Riverside distribution center for 45 to 60 minutes.
USDA Temporary Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
Through the program, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) purchases healthy foods – fruits, vegetables, and other staples – from U.S. farmers, growers, and producers. We partner with other states and counties to connect families and needy individuals with that food. Counties design their TEFAP programs to meet local needs so programs vary from one county to another depending on size, location and the specific needs of the people they serve.
.jpg)
Senior Mobile Pantry Program
FARSB implemented the Senior Mobile Pantry Program (SMPP)* to address the increased demand for older adults and other families in need of food assistance throughout the Inland Empire. SMPP focuses on serving not only low-income households with adults 60 years of age or older but also other low-income households (regardless of senior status or lack thereof) within both Riverside and San Bernardino counties through regularly scheduled food distribution programs. Food recipients are guaranteed to receive nutritious, healthy, and high-quality food kits at no cost through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (USDA/TEFAP). SMPP seeks to serve up to 2,000 households every month.
*Formerly CSFP. Please note that assistance is now ONE per Household and is open to all age categories.