Food Now Gala Helps Combat Food Insecurity

Food Now Gala to Raise Money to Combat Food Insecurity in West Valley Communities

Senior citizens, children and even their pets are suffering from food insecurity in Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Cathedral City and surrounding communities.

“Two thirds of our clients have pets,” said Tom Tragesser, a board member of Food Now, which provides both human food and pet food for 1,684 food insecure households and 3,992 individuals in Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Cathedral City and surrounding communities.

“Our clients with pets are often seniors living alone, families with young children as well as the homeless. They end up giving their pets table scraps of human food, which takes away from the family meals and is not healthy for the pet,” Tragesser said.

Food Now will hold its annual fundraising gala from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 10, at the Melissa Morgan Fine Art, at 73660 El Paseo in Palm Desert to raise money for its various food programs.

These programs include a companion animal feeding program as well as a special program that discretely provides schoolchildren with backpacks filled with food that they can take home each weekend. The weekend program is a cooperative effort between Food Now and the Palm Springs Unified School District to provide selected chronically hungry children with additional meals and snacks on weekends. Food Now also provides home deliveries for disabled veterans and a daily distribution of ready-to-eat food packages and personal hygiene items for the homeless.

Food Now also operates a food pantry in Desert Hot Springs and receives food donations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and FIND Food Bank in addition to financial support from local Rotary members and local residents.

A member of the Feeding America network, Food Now has provided daily meals, four times per week, for 1,894 adults, 1,008 senior citizens, 1,090 children and 684 homeless people during the past year, Tragesser said.

More information on Food Now’s annual gala is available at
www.foodnowdhs.org/events.