Senior food boxes available at Fallbrook Food Pantry

The Angel’s Depot, a nonprofit organization that prepares food boxes for senior citizens, has announced that the Fallbrook Food Pantry is their number two commodities recipient. The Vista company, which opened its doors in May of this year, prepares boxes of “nutritious, nonperishable foods” solely for the use of seniors and distributes them throughout San Diego County. Angel’s Depot contends that there are over 50,000 seniors in San Diego County living in poverty.

Their founder, Susan Stames Hall, received the Channel 10 Leadership Award for her efforts. Their premise is that many seniors must choose between buying food and medicine each month. “They are a proud generation, reluctant to ask for help, and thus many suffer from malnutrition.”

The Fallbrook Food Pantry distributes The Angel’s Depot “Senior Food-for-a-Week” boxes in addition to a commodity package provided by the US Department of Agriculture and their own “Brown Box for Seniors.” Seniors are eligible to participate in one of these programs.

The commodity package provided by the US Department of Agriculture is available to seniors with a monthly household income of $1,225 for a single and $1,650 for a couple, with an increased income scale for extra household members.

The Food Pantry “Brown Box for Seniors” program, at this time, is for seniors 60 and over with a monthly income of $1,037 for a single and $1,390 for a couple. The scale increases with the amount of residents in the household.

The eligibility requirements for The Angel’s Depot boxes, at this time, are “about $900 per month or less for a single person or about $1,200 for a couple.” These boxes will be given to Fallbrook area seniors over 60 years of age or disabled seniors over 55 years of age. Please contact The Angel’s Depot at (760) 599-7093 if you live in another area of San Diego County.

Don Luallin, director of the Fallbrook Food Pantry, commented, “Most seniors come in and pick up their boxes, but we do have volunteers who deliver to shut-ins.” He said that lately their food distribution to seniors has increased “quite a bit.” “We want to keep them as healthy as we can,” he said, and are increasing the distribution in proportion to the need. The Fallbrook Food Pantry has provided 3,659 food boxes this year to seniors through the three programs.

The Food Pantry also provides boxes for other low-income residents and is now in its 11th year. “The majority have jobs but are low-income,” said Luallin.

“We are thankful for the tremendous amount of support we get from the community,” he added.

In order to apply for any of these programs please bring to the Fallbrook Food Pantry (call ahead for hours):

• Photo ID

• Proof of income (Social Security statement, payroll statement or bank statement)

• Proof of address (Utility, phone, or water bill)

The Fallbrook Food Pantry is located at 1042 South Mission Road. The telephone number is (760) 728-7608. As always, the Fallbrook Food Pantry is accepting both food and cash donations.