Roche Winery Volunteers at Redwood Empire Food Bank

Following the recent wine country wildfires our winery wanted to roll up our sleeves and try to help make a difference in the lives of those impacted.  Many of our neighbors, friends and family lost their homes.  Others lost their businesses or jobs due to the fires.  Among those affected, several have struggled just to put food on their family’s table.

So our winery organized two, separate volunteer outings to the Redwood Empire Food Bank in Santa Rosa.   We organized one volunteer trip on Wednesday, November15th  and another on Tuesday November 28th.   Both winery staff as well as several of our wonderful customers joined us in this volunteer effort.

Each day our volunteer team was quickly trained and then we just dove right in to the task at hand!  Large containers of potatoes and carrots were brought in by forklift into the sorting and packing rooms where our volunteers were stationed.  Then, we were responsible for sorting and bagging these potatoes and carrots to be later distributed to those in need.  As we ended our volunteer shift and exited the facility, we observed a line of cars and people awaiting their donations of food.

All of our volunteers in attendance worked hard and had a great time helping out during their time at the Redwood Empire Food Bank.  Over the period of the two (2) days our volunteers were able to achieve the following:

·         More than 40 volunteer hours donated

·         More than 1,000 lbs of food sorted and bagged

A big “thank you” goes out to our winery staff and to our customers who volunteered.  You made a difference in our community!