At Hope for the Heart, the giving goes on. Days after the fire wiped out the nonprofit charity warehouse and destroying everything inside, closing down was not an option.
"It was never a thought. It was a hiccup to what we were going to do, but it was never a thought," says volunteer Victoria Popejoy.
What they are doing is moving on. When a semi truck rolled in from Riverside with 40,000 pounds of donated drinks, the driver had no idea of fire and devastation.
"When Vivian came up and told me she lost her whole warehouse, and I'm just in shock," says Antonio Robbs from Operation Blessing.
The giving goes on there at Hope for the Heart food bank. They are also getting help from all over the community and actually had an agency to offer its own warehouse so they can temporarily store some food. They will be handing out food and supplies to charities again on Wednesday morning at 9:30.
While the non-profit does have plans to rebuild, it said it also wants to continue on with its mission to help the poor in the East Bay. On Tuesday, it plans to handout produce, meat and food to more the two dozen other charities. This will be the first distribution - just five days after having a fire destroy the warehouse. The food will go to families in need.
"This is not an extra for most of our organizations or families in need; this is something they depend on everyday. A lot of these organizations give out once or twice a week. The people have come to depend on the food, especially right now," said Victoria Popejoy, Hope for the Heart food bank.
Hope for the Heart helps about 11,000 people a month. Because of the fire they are not going to be able to continue to help people at that level, but they are going to try.
In the mean time the investigation continues. Firefighters do know where it started, but as far as how the fire was started, that has not been determined.
Food bank donations
To donate to Hope for the Heart Food Bank, just call (510) 415-0197.
