Food Bank of Nevada County will be able to provide even more fresh fruit, vegetables and perishable food to hungry families in the area with the donation of a truck the size of the largest available U-Haul.

California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento this week gave a bobtail cold-storage truck to the nonprofit organization, among four Northern California food pantries to receive the trucks this week.

The trucks were paid for with a $250,000 grant to Foodlink from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Foodlink spokesman Will Holbert said.

Food the truck will carry comes from Foodlink's Donate Don't Dump program, which gleans excess fruit and vegetables from farmers, produce brokers and packing houses across the state.

The benefit of the trucks “is the food banks' new ability to use them as giant refrigerators, making more — and more healthy — fresh produce available for hungry folks,” Holbert said.

Food Bank Executive Director Toni Thompson could not be reached for comment Friday.

An estimated 15.1 percent of Nevada County's residents are not sure where their next meal will come from — more than 14,600 people, Holbert said.

The nonprofit organization Feeding America estimates nearly 14 percent of people in the 4th Congressional District, or nearly 102,000 people, fall in to that category — and nearly half do not qualify for federal food assistance.

Nevada County's food bank distributed sacks of groceries to people, offers emergency food distributions and has a school snack program.

Volunteers recently have started harvesting fresh produce from their first garden.

ooo

To contact Senior Staff Writer Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4230.