09/23/2026
Today was a day to give back.
Thank you to the North Bay Association of Realtors for organizing this event and to my fabulous team members 👏 (Ted Stumpf, Dean Castelli, Joe Burns, Katie Yearnshaw, Malissa Seigler & Chris) for hustling, keeping the humor alive and for rockstar bell pepper sorting 😂).
I volunteered at the Community Action of Napa Valley (CANV) Food Distribution Center and it was an experience that affected me more than I expected it to.
Walking in, I knew I would be helping in the warehouse, but I don’t think I fully understood the amount of work and care that goes into making sure people in our community have safe food resources.
Seeing how the food is sorted and prepared for our community made the reality of food insecurity feel much more personal.
Programs like Meals on Wheels, the Silver Fox and senior programs, and the food pantry are not just programs on a list—they represent real people who depend on them for survival.
What really stayed with me was realizing how much food is wasted in our country, and in my own home. At the CANV that is a different story.
I was honestly impressed by how much food can be recovered and put to use instead of being thrown away. CANV makes an effort to use as much of the food as possible for people, and when it can no longer be used for human consumption, farmers can use a majority of it to feed animals.
By the end of the day, I was genuinely emotional and this experience brought me to tears.
This speaks for itself:
🥪 3,000,000 lbs food distributed each year
👩 31,216 people helped each year
🚚 460 meals Delivered Daily
🥗 138,899 meals Delivered Each Year
I honestly look forward to volunteering again and make a commitment in my home take food waste more seriously.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
