The stormy weather in the morning made conditions a little rough for the recipients and for the Riverbank Cares volunteers for the annual Food Giveaway at the Community Center on Friday, Dec. 23. The event was going to start at 10 a.m. but due to the wet weather and wind, organizers decided to open the doors at 9 a.m. People trickled in and out of the event, which ended at noon.

Riverbank Cares is a united effort by Christian Food Sharing and St. Vincent de Paul with help from the Riverbank Rotary, the City of Riverbank, and several other volunteers. Riverbank Cares has been collecting food for the less fortunate and distributing the food at the holiday food giveaway for close to 10 years.

There were approximately 50 volunteers on hand to make sure recipients received all the food the group had to offer and even had a handful of youngsters that were there and helped carry the food out to people’s cars.

According to Lynda Silva, Riverbank Cares Coordinator, the amount of families that came out for the food giveaway was down significantly. However, they did help 230 families with full meals including turkeys, chickens, canned hams, potatoes, rice, beans, bread, and pastries for this holiday season.

Approximately 50 people received food delivered by the Riverbank Rotary Club first thing in the morning.

Some food was left over due to the slow turnout but that food will go back to the Christian Food Sharing and St. Vincent de Paul for their regular food distribution day. St. Vincent will distribute food tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 29 and Christian Food Sharing will have distributed food on Friday, Dec. 30.

They had over 100 turkeys that were given away and were able to be very generous due to the fact that less people attended. The organization had planned for about 300 families.

“It was a good morning,” stated Silva. “We had lots of volunteers, lots of help … and just a really great group. “The volunteers were wonderful.”