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There were lots of smiling faces this afternoon at Food for People, Humboldt County’s official food bank, as pallet after pallet of food got unloaded from a large semi-truck trailer and hauled via forklift to the warehouse doorway of the nonprofit organization’s Eureka headquarters.

Carley Robbins, Food for People’s executive director, stood in the sun-drenched parking lot as a forklift rolled past carrying a pallet of boxes labeled “Peanut Butter.”

“So, the LDS church is donating a full truckload — 40,000 pounds of food — to Food for People for our clients and our programs, which is incredible,” she explained.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints launched a nationwide food-donation program to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday. The local delivery is just one of 250 truckloads of food being delivered across all 50 states this year.

Robbins estimated that this one delivery represents roughly two to three months’ worth of food, which will be used in a variety of programs.

“It really helps everything from our network of countywide food pantries to our child nutrition programs,” she said. “And they’re donating a lot of amazing things that we might not necessarily get often. There’s stuff like cake mix, cocoa mix that people love but we aren’t necessarily buying — and even on down to laundry detergent, which is something that will fly out of our our pantries.”

Jed Winn, the Eureka stake president for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, told the Outpost that the food donations were funded through charitable giving by church membership.

“So the church worldwide looks for ways that it can help communities and help people lift them up and make a difference,” Winn said. The delivery made to Food for People today is for local people who need it, “whether they’re members of our church or not,” he added. “We partner with Food for People because they’re awesome.”

Winn said this Eureka delivery, which will serve people throughout Humboldt and Del Norte counties, is the most important one the LDS church will make this year. 

“It does feel that way because it makes a difference to people we know and people in the community that we see every day,” he said.