Local leaders got angry, since many of the people receiving food have lost jobs in the food industry.
"We would rather be stronger with our agriculture and be doing well with our economy than hoping to have food from other countries. But this is what we have on the table right now," said San Joaquin Mayor Ruby Dhaliwal.
Dana Wilkie with the Community Food Bank said "Our first priority is to buy local and we want to give back to the farmers that help us be successful in our community. So, it's a delicate balance. But again, the Community Food Bank, our goal is to feed people and I'll use whatever food we have available to do that."
The food bank got the emergency food from the State Department of Social Services and Costa complained to them about not supporting local farms and farm workers.
A department spokeswoman said they distributed $3-million dollars worth of food and about four percent of it came from foreign countries. She blamed a contractor for not following instructions to buy American food.
MORE LOCAL NEWS |
TWEET@ABC30 |
FREE ABC30 WIDGET
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sign up for Breaking News Alerts
Breaking News E-Mail
Alerts |
Text Message
Alerts
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More News on abc30.com
California/State |
National/World |
Weather |
Entertainment |
Business |
Politics |
Sports |
Health Watch |
Consumer Watch |
Mr. Food |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
