Pictured from left are Jane Jackson, Rancho Cordova Food Locker board member; Carrie Johnson, executive director; Heather Tankersley, co-owner, Tankersley Construction; Teri Crisanty, board member; Al Crisanty; and Ross Johnson, board member and fiscal consultant. Photo by Margaret Snider

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The full program for the Aug. 15 Rancho Cordova Luncheon was the screening of the film, “Food for Thought,” which was about the Rancho Cordova Food Locker.  

Produced by Charles Lago, executive director of the Rancho Cordova Film Office, and edited by Rafael Portillo, the film began with this statement: “Food insecurity is an official term from the U.S.D.A.  It’s when people don’t have enough to eat and don’t know where their next meal will come from.  It’s a big problem in the United States, where over 44 million people, including 13 million children, experience food insecurity annually.”

The Rancho Cordova Food Locker was founded in 1987 by Deacon Walter Little. 

“(The food locker) stayed the same for a long time,” Little said. “We got to the point that we knew changes had to be made.” 

Little continued with the Rancho Cordova Food Locker through 2020 to help with the transition when Carrie Johnson became executive director.  

Johnson was commissioned in 2020 by the City of Rancho Cordova to perform a feasibility study. 

“They recognized that it was an important piece of the community and social service, and they wanted to make sure it was sustainable,” Johnson said. 

The first year of the study was one of observation.

“During the pandemic, it became clear that the food locker offered critical support to families, seniors and veterans,” Johnson said. “In 2021 the City of Rancho Cordova funded a 90-day project to support RCFL to better understand its growth and capacity needs and to help identify future impact priority areas for the fledging organization, which had one year as a freestanding nonprofit organization under its belt.”

Johnson found deficiencies in the food locker’s sustainability. 

“It’s a problem that doesn’t affect everyone equally,” Johnson said in the movie.  “. . . While people experience food insecurity in every community, children, seniors and people of color are disproportionately affected.”

As a result of her study, Johnson said, there will be a new Food Locker, renamed the Food Hub, to be built at 2771 Don Juan Drive in Rancho Cordova with an estimated timeline in early spring 2026. 

Current operations will continue to run in the meantime, “in order to serve the over 6,000 households who are facing hunger in our community each month,” Johnson said.

One of Johnson’s findings was that people were ashamed to ask for food. The process did not allow for dignity. 

“Really looking at who you’re serving and taking care of them, that became paramount to me,” Johnson said. “I wanted people to come to the Food Locker and feel safe and comfortable and have a good experience . . . It’s a hard thing to do, to come to the Food Locker, and if we can smile when we see them and we can shake their hand and treat them like our neighbor, it makes their life a little bit easier.”

Johnson initiated changes to make the process easier and more pleasant for those using the Food Locker. Volunteers and workers who spoke different languages were brought in to help. 

Rancho Cordova Food Locker representatives attended community events, such as Kid’s Day to share information about the food locker, did news interviews and met with other nonprofit organizations to promote the food locker.

Little received no compensation when he was director of the Food Locker. 

“It wasn’t my project,” Little said. “The first thing I‘d say when I got up in the morning to go over there is, ‘This has got nothing to do with me, Lord. You’re going to have to tell me what to do. I have no answers.’” And it just worked.”