Nevada County food bank truck storing dozens of Easter meals vandalized

A Nevada County Food Bank freezer truck storing dozens of Easter holiday meals was vandalized this week, the food bank said.

Staff noticed the truck had been damaged early Tuesday, said Nicole McNeely, executive director of the food bank. Staff found the truck’s windows had been shattered and glass all over the ground. A second vehicle in the Grass Valley lot was damaged as well as the food bank’s barrier fence.

McNeely said the inside of the truck had been rifled through and damaged, but none of the food in the freezers appeared to have been touched.

“They, unfortunately, did a lot of damage,” she said.

McNeely said the food bank will have to make do with the damaged truck to make sure Easter meals get delivered, and then take the truck to be repaired afterwards.

The number of people utilizing the food bank’s services has quadrupled since the quarantine began, she said. Where they used to feed about 350 people a day, they are now feeding about 2,000, McNeely said, making the freezer truck invaluable to their operations.

They’ve also lost the majority of their volunteers as a consequence of the quarantine, she said.

“We’re trying to make do with what we have,” McNeely said. “We’re small, so it hits us really hard.”