Bay Area Rescue Mission (BARM) receives Semi-Trailer Truck of Food

Bay Area Rescue Mission in Richmond changes the lives of the homeless, they are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week caring for homeless men, women and children. They provide emergency shelter overnight for the homeless, but most importantly transitional housing is provided for those who want to change their life by living at their facility and taking classes and life skills training for up to a year. BARM also has a food pantry, provide clothing, and cook hot meals three times a day in their own kitchen.

Their leadership and staff are experienced and passionate in their dedication to help the homeless in the bay area to change their lives and improve their living conditions. In the past year, BARM opened a new facility with 114 beds for women with children, the facility is new, clean and beautiful, giving the residents a new sense of dignity and as you walk through the facility, you can feel the friendliness and love. Some of the staff, who work at BARM are graduates of their program and manage departments such as their kitchen and warehouse.

The goal of the Food Pantry is to keep people from becoming homeless by distributing food, clothing, furniture and other household items. BARM picks up excess food from over 10 local chain stores, sorts the food, uses much of it for preparing meals and distributing to individuals at the pantry and to other agencies throughout the area.

The food truck was delivered on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, Feb 14, with 24 pallets of food weighing approximately 40,000 pounds with cans of cream of chicken soup, chili, apple sauce, pears, spaghetti, beef stew, pasta, laundry soap and more.

The truck is part of the Surplus Food program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has their own farms, canneries, dairies, and other processing plants. When there is surplus in their storage warehouses, it is shared with food pantries and to disaster areas. Recently three trucks were received in Santa Rosa and Monterey counties to assist flood victims in those areas.

Donations to the BARM pantry can be made at their warehouse at 123 MacDonald Ave, Richmond, daily from 8am. (see www.bayarearescue.org for the full schedule and other ways to help)

Staff at BARM were excited at the large shipment of food, saying “This will go a long way to help feed the needy in our area, with this food, we can provide them with the food they need to stay healthy and nourished, and we can give them hope for a better future”.