New Community Market provides families in need some dignity with their dairy
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Nonprofit Families Forward used to offer “a bag and a handshake” through its food pantry assistance program, as its chief executive, Madelynn Hirneise, put it.
That offer is turning into a dignified place to shop and a grocery list.
Families Forward officially launched the Community Market on Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its Irvine headquarters.
“We have imagined this space as kind of like a Trader Joe’s,” Hirneise said. “You get in there, there’s warm welcomes, warm hellos, and before you know it you’ve told the Trader Joe’s employee your entire weekend plans. You’re just building that relationship, and we’re starting to gather what’s happening at home.”
Families Forward has been operating a food pantry since 1987. But Hirneise said the Community Market fits into a new, narrative-shifting objective: Rather than counting how many families are coming to the market, it’s about counting how many families no longer need food assistance.
It was time to do something differently, she said, as Families Forward serves an average of about 800 families per month. The number of families seeking services has held steady rather than dropped since the coronavirus pandemic.
“We kind of talked about the pandemic being unprecedented, but now it’s our new normal,” Hirneise said. “How do we get more upstream? How do we prevent these families from getting into this situation in the first place, because it’s not sustainable for us to continue to meet the need of the families that are coming in?”
The pantry’s expansion into the Community Market features a new 670-square-foot market, plus a third refrigerated walk-in space that allows for expanded storage of staples like milk, eggs and produce.
Each family receives a sheet while shopping, based off their family size and the pantry’s inventory. Families Forward is in the process of digitizing that process, so the inventory would update in real time and be available on a customer’s phone.
“If we have a surplus of cauliflower, we want to make sure families know, you can grab more cauliflower,” Hirneise said. “If we have limited meat items, then we can reduce that. It’s an ebb and flow, based off the inventory and the family size.”
The Community Market was funded in part by the San Diego Gas & Electric Company Community Assistance Fund. Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner and Harvesters, a group of women dedicated to raising funds and awareness for Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, were also able to secure grant funding.
Hirneise said those grants totaled about $200,000, but in-kind donations from general contractor C.W. Driver and others pushed the total to more than $300,000. They include three large wall murals donated by artist Phoebe Nelson, owner of Pandr Design Co.
Wagner was one of several speakers at the ceremony.
“What makes our community wonderful is not the stuff that comes out of City Hall or the Hall of Administration,” he said. “Heaven knows, it’s not Sacramento or government. It’s people doing for people on the ground, and that is exemplified by Families Forward.”
Irvine Mayor Larry Agran also gave remarks.
“We have to celebrate all of the work that is being done, and not kind of carry this burden forward year after year,” Agran said. “We have to frankly acknowledge, something is wrong in America when so few have so much, and so many have so little. It just has to be confronted, head on, as a part of our mission. The work you do I think implicitly tackles that problem … [We want to] be the biggest, most populous county in the United States of America that is food secure, nutrition secure and where there’s ample housing for everyone.”
Irvine resident Dalal, who requested her last name not be used for security reasons, also spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She has received both housing and food assistance through Families Forward.
She said she used to have a well-paying corporate job before she got married and moved to San Diego, where she focused on caring for her family. After a divorce, she was left with custody of her twin boys, now 5 years old, and she quickly found it hard to make ends meet.
She said she is met with the smiling faces of volunteers at the Community Market, not questions about how someone as young as her could need assistance.
“Whoever brought this to life, kudos to them, because there’s less waste and people get to pick [the food they want],” Dalal said. “It literally feels like a grocery store. I use what I need and what is needed for my kids. I know my son’s allergies. It’s not someone else’s burden, it’s me, I get to hand-pick it. Just this program in general, I hope to God it always has funding, because it does change lives.”
One day, she said she was able to pick up a birthday cake for her twins at Families Forward.
“It was like, one less expense you have to worry about for that month,” she said, adding that she’s living paycheck to paycheck but is hopeful she’ll work a 9-to-5 job again once her twins are in school full time.
Hirneise said Families Forward is looking for volunteers to help with the Community Market. Previously, the nonprofit could get a food shift done with six volunteers, but it now takes double that.
“If you like providing a warm smile and talking to strangers, and you thought, ‘I can work at Trader Joe’s,’ come work here instead,” she said with a smile herself. “We’d love to have you.”
For more about the food pantry or volunteer opportunities, visit families-forward.org or call (949) 552-2727.
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