It’s hell on earth in the North Bay, and there is a tremendous, awe-inspiring amount of effort happening in the Bay Area from so many people trying to help, from feeding people to providing shelter and supplies and medical attention, let alone emotional support, to helping animals and livestock. It’s a huge triage situation that’s changing hourly. Some systems are coming into focus, with organizations like Facebook preparing and delivering 5,000 meals at a time. Incredible.
We’re in this for the long haul, folks. Here are places and organizations where you can donate time, money, meals, and more. Even if you can’t help RIGHT NOW, how about next week?
A group of top SF restaurateurs and businesses have banded together to bring food to the North Bay and help care for the community. Whether you’re a chef who wants to cook/prepare food or a volunteer who can help with phone calls and admin and deliveries, please take a look at SF Fights Fire and sign up. (You can also donate to help their efforts.) Since last Thursday, they have delivered more than 15,000 meals, working closely with the Salvation Army, Ceres Community Project in Sebastopol, and small evacuation centers.
Huge kudos to Off the Grid for rallying their vendors and trucks to help feed people. Please support them in their efforts here.
Here’s a page with food needs set up by a nonprofit group in Santa Rosa, Worth Our Weight (see contact info at the top), where you can offer to provide food.
Meredith Miller in Petaluma and her group of #sandwichangels have been feeding sandwiches to first responders and evacuees—she started with 200 sandwiches in her home kitchen and is now up to 2,000 at a commercial kitchen. Here’s how to help financially, and there’s info on how you can volunteer here.
Our friend at Pizzalina brought UndocuFund to my attention, which is bringing fire relief to undocumented workers in Sonoma County (who aren’t eligible for fire relief from FEMA, and have diminished access to other disaster relief services). Please take a look. To add some perspective, an estimated 28,000 undocumented immigrants live and work in Sonoma County.
Our friends at Napa Private Tours have been feeding first responders, evacuees, and volunteers (you can follow their efforts on their Instagram too), here’s how to help them: “We are in for the long run and we need you to partner with us. If you are among those who has asked for a way to give us a tax-deductible donation, we are fortunate and blessed to have an option for you. Our wonderful friends at Feast It Forward have set up a direct account to point money our way and help us keep going as we try to meet the immediate needs of first responders and fire evacuees.”
Can you drive? Copia is looking for delivery volunteers!
Our friends at Heath have this to say: “We’re heartbroken by the devastating impact of the North Bay’s wildfires and all of our neighbors who have been impacted. We’ve been thinking about how Heath can help immediate, critical needs, and believe that the way that we can potentially have the most impact is to support the Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB). REFB is providing critical food to shelters for neighbors displaced by fires and working to ensure that those who needed food assistance before the fires are still able to access their help.
“REFB is in dire need of ready-to-eat, nonperishable foods that they can provide to the evacuation centers immediately and for weeks to come. These foods should be easy to open and easy to eat; many shelters do not have kitchens for heating and preparing food. Please do not bring glass containers.
“Feel free to drop off food donations to the Heath SF or Heath Sausalito showrooms. We’ll use our Heath van to deliver donations to REFB on Friday, October 20. And we’ll continue to evaluate our contributions as needs and news evolves.”
“And our friends at Bay Grape have been doing a lot to help (follow on Facebook and sign up for their newsletter); here’s what they recommend:
“1) GIVE MONEY for the long road of rebuilding ahead. The Napa Valley Community Foundation and Sonoma County Resilience Fund are two good options among many.
“2) BUY PRODUCTS FROM AFFECTED AREAS. We cannot overstate this enough. It can feel shallow to just ‘drink a bottle of wine’ and think you’re helping, but you truly are. Your purchase is REAL money going to REAL businesses, families, livelihoods that have been totally decimated by these fires.
“3) VISIT THE AFFECTED AREAS, eat at the restaurants, shop at the stores, drink at the tasting rooms, tip well. Again: REAL money going to REAL businesses, families, and livelihoods. We’ll be majorly amping up our stock of Mendocino, Sonoma, and Napa wines at the shop in the coming months as a way to support this effort.”
And from Reeve Wines: “Sonoma-based Reeve Wines, from husband-and-wife team Noah and Kelly Dorrance, has put together an all-star effort for fire relief. Based in Healdsburg in the Dry Creek Valley, Noah and Kelly have called upon friends and family to create an epic raffle event with 100 percent of all money raised going to help fire victims, with a focus on giving to the most vulnerable and those who were uninsured.”
Donors and friends will match dollar for dollar all the money raised (that means this doubles the impact of the gift). All funds raised through the purchase of entry tickets will be divided to three different organizations—the Redwood Credit Union Fund, Redwood Empire Food Bank, and to a local to Healdsburg organization called Corazon. Tickets are 1 for $25, 5 for $100, 15 for $200, 50 for $500. Drawing will be held on Facebook Live at 11am PST, November 1st.
The Absinthe Group is hosting a fundraising event this Sunday October 22nd at BELLOTA from 3pm-7pm, with 100 percent of ticket sales ($100 per person) going directly to fire relief efforts. The walk-around event will feature food and drink from Bellota, plus dishes from contributing chefs, including Antelmo Faria (Uma Casa), Kim Alter (Nightbird), Jason Berthold (Monsieur Benjamin), Anjan Mitra (Dosa), and more. Tickets and more info can be found here.
And lastly, we could all use a drink. Come by ~THE FRONT PORCH~ tomorrow, Wednesday October 18th, for the Lo-Fi x Front Porch fundraiser—all Lo-Fi drink proceeds will be donated to North Bay fire relief. 5:30pm-8:30pm.
