Dave Henderson, a recent new member of Healdsburg’s Noon Rotary Club, was looking for a way to help with the current situation of food insecurity. “I was going to launch a food collection program together with the Redwood Empire Food Bank, and then talked to them quite a bit,” he said. “Then just by chance I found out about this ‘A Simple Gesture’ program.”
It is becoming a popular fund-raising program for other area Rotary clubs, in Rohnert Park and Cotati and Windsor, with more coming on board and “getting with the program,” as it were.
“As federal funding for essential programs like SNAP and local food banks continues to decline, communities must take initiative,” states the asimplegesture.org website. “In Healdsburg, we’re answering that call through a grassroots effort that’s simple, effective, and deeply impactful.”
Dr. David Anderson, another Noon Rotary Club member and an early adapter to the program, said, “They give out unique green bags with ‘A Simple Gesture’ printed on them. People are encouraged to fill the bag with food items for the Food Pantry (a suggested list is included), and then leave the bags on their own front step.”
Volunteers pick up the food bag on schedule and leave an empty one. The first weekend they signed up 30 participants. The donated food was delivered to the Healdsburg Food Pantry, which distributed the food (and only food, said pantry manager Patty Dahl) from its warehouse at 1505 Healdsburg Ave.
Dahl said, “We don’t do clothes, diapers, et cetera, which some of the other places do, but we provide food to anybody who lives or works in Healdsburg or Geyserville.”
With the current political and economic pressures, Dahl noted that more families are showing up for food support—though donations are up, too. “Even before this whole thing with SNAP and WIC and CalFresh being at least temporarily terminated, we were seeing an increase in our numbers,” she said. “And we see everybody from folks who are working to some of the unsheltered in the community.
“The cost of groceries is going up, we all know that,” she continued. “And the cost of living in general is going up, so people need more support.”
The Redwood Empire Food Bank is also working with A Simple Gesture in this holiday season, according to Rachelle Masheau. “With food insecurity on the rise—amid canceled truckloads, program funding cuts and a surge in local need—this holiday food drive delivers a fabulous opportunity for neighbors to help, right from their doorstep,” she said.
Dr. Anderson was one of those who took part over the past weekend in a trial pick-up for the local group. “It was easy for me to fill the bag (I threw in a few leftover Halloween candies of course). It was very rewarding and simple,” he said. “I have enrolled three other couples, and they quickly and easily embraced this project.”
So popular is the new method for collecting food goods at the local level to impact food insecurity that Henderson thought it may become a “North Bay Rotary program in common,” stretching across several North Bay counties. The entire district is interested in spreading it to all the clubs.
That sort of cooperation is unusual, if not unheard of. “I haven’t been with the Rotary that long, but most of the clubs are pretty independent” aside from cooperating on the International Rotary project End Polio, Henderson said.
Recipients of the donations will go through the Healdsburg Shared Ministries Food Pantry for distribution, through their 1505 Healdsburg Ave. center or other programs.
To find out more and sign up for A Simple Gesture, as a donor or volunteer, visit asgeventmanager.com or joinasg.org.
