STEAC’s annual realtor food drive receives donations despite distancing protocols

PHOTO: Volunteers at the Nov. 7 STEAC drive unload bags from realtors cars to be taken to the STEAC warehouse.

By Clara Ault,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Nov. 7 marked the annual Short Term Emergency Aid Committee (STEAC) realtor food drive. Realtors around the city collected food in bags for collection and distribution. STEAC volunteers gathered to set up and receive the first batch of donations.

Megan Gurley has been a volunteer with STEAC for two years and led Saturday’s drive. She says that the realtor drive is an important event and volunteers are crucial to make the event run smoothly. 

“The realtors put together a list of most-needed items and send out fliers ahead of time in neighborhoods as well as advertise in the Enterprise. STEAC has volunteers at the Food Closet to accept the food and put it into vans to be brought to our warehouse in Dixon. There, another set of volunteers sort the food into boxes and weigh it so that it is accessible when needed,” Gurley said.

So far, 938 bags of food have arrived and more have been delivered today.  

Although STEAC does this drive every year, they usually have schools donate as well. Due to the pandemic, they haven’t been able to receive those donations, said Liane Moody, the head of STEAC in Yolo County.

“While many of our usual donors [like schools] cannot participate this year [on] Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., we can accept donated food from individuals and groups. We found that these regular small donations have supplied us with as much food as we would get from larger drives we have held in the past,” Moody said. 

To  make sure all of the volunteers are protected, STEAC has implemented a mandatory mask policy and sanitizes all surfaces before and after use. 

“In order to comply with social distancing requirements, we now sort the food over a longer period of time by smaller groups of volunteers who work outside of our warehouse in Dixon where we can set up separate stations and keep people safe,” Moody said.