Regional food bank: 14.8% of Cathedral City residents are food insecure; program served tens of thousands

Find Food Bank representatives told the Cathedral City City Council Thursday that 14.8% of the city’s residents are food insecure and that the regional nonprofit distributed about 1.2 million pounds of food in Cathedral City over the past 12 months.

The presentation summarized recent Feeding America and Census-based data used to calculate food insecurity, described the scope of local distribution and outreach, and outlined workforce development and CalFresh/Medi-Cal outreach programs run in partnership with local colleges and county agencies.

Find Food Bank’s representative said the 14.8% figure is an estimate of residents likely to experience insufficient access to food, noting that many people who are food insecure are not homeless but include fixed-income seniors, working adults whose wages do not cover living costs and children. “Of the 125,000 people on average that Find Food Bank and the partner agencies serve every month, only about 2 to 3% of that are actually homeless,” the representative said.

The presenter said Find Food Bank distributed more than 20 million pounds of food across its service area in the last 12 months, with roughly 1.2 million pounds delivered to Cathedral City. The organization reported 6,000-plus client interactions at community mobile markets within Cathedral City and 52,227 combined client interactions citywide when including partner agencies and local pantries. The Cathedral City Senior Center received more than 100,000 pounds from Find Food Bank during that period, the presenter said.

Officials described additional services beyond food distribution, including CalFresh outreach, Medi-Cal outreach and workforce development. Find Food Bank said it runs workforce training in partnership with College of the Desert, offering stipends tied to volunteer hours and state grant funds; it also refers clients to Riverside County workforce programs and plans to expand its in-warehouse workforce program after a warehouse grand opening later this month.

Council members asked whether the 14.8% rate had changed; the presenter said it had remained roughly the same over the last year. Council members also asked about the effect of recent federal funding changes. The presenter said some federal programs and bonus commodity shipments were reduced or paused — producing a loss of higher-protein items — and estimated lost federal funding for the organization in recent cycles roughly as $50,000 for EFSP and about $200,000 across CDBG allocations, with another $60,000–$70,000 in administrative funding reductions tied to bonus product distribution.

The presenter emphasized that Find Food Bank has diversified funding sources — state, county, city and private donors — and that donated product remains a primary distribution source. The organization said it serves anyone who shows need; one registered program (the Commodity Supplemental Food Program) still requires client registration and comprises about 4,500 of the bank’s clients.

Council members thanked the presenter and noted the organization’s continuing need for support and partnerships.

Looking ahead, Find Food Bank invited council and staff to a warehouse grand opening on Friday the 26th and offered to answer further questions and provide additional data on request.