The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has shut down the SLO Food Bank’s warehouse because of issues with food safety and for operating without a valid processed food registration permit. [KSBY]
On Nov. 27, a state investigator inspected the SLO Food Bank’s facility on Kendall Road in San Luis Obispo and discovered the unsanitary and regulatory issues. The state also cited the Food Bank for “food adulteration,” the process of adding inferior additions to foods that make the products unsafe.
“Due to the unsanitary conditions, all food within the facility is embargoed, and no new food can be moved into the facility until sanitary conditions have been restored,” the CDPH said Friday in a statement to KSBY.
Each month, the SLO Food Bank helps feed about 6,000 families. About 60 percent of scheduled food deliveries will be made next week, according to Food Bank CEO Kevin Drabinski.
SLO Food Bank officials and state inspectors will meet next week to discuss how to correct the Food Bank’s safety and regulatory issues.
I work for a non-profit that helps distribute food for the SLO Foodbank. Ever since they decided to combine the operations of their two leased warehouses in Oceano and Paso Robles into the one owned building in SLO; the entire operation has been haphazard at best. The food selection and quality delivered from the new building has been absolutely horrid for the past year since they moved. This will be the second year in a row that many agencies received far less holiday food to serve their clients than in years past. I believe at least 20 local non-profits have cancelled their contracts with Foodbank, and have started grass-roots food collection efforts of their own because of SLO Foodbank’s continued incompetence. Having worked with the SLO Foodbank for the past seven years, it is in my opionion that the agency placed their new building as priority ahead of their clientele. SLO Foodbank’s main focus for these past two years has been centered around fundraising and building their new facility in SLO (and I believe the new building has taken priority over and above serving their clients). The new building is much smaller in square footage than the two combined leased facilities, which has severely limited the quanitity of food that SLO Foodbank is able to process and distribute to it’s clients. What non-profit agency endures the expense of building a new facility that will further limit their ability to serve it’s clients? I believe SLO Foodbank has lost it’s way, and this shutdown is the most public proof of the giant dirty secret they have kept hidden since moving into their new building.