Interface Children & Family Services' 211 has teamed up with Fillmore Unified School District and MORRIS CHEVROLET to get school lunches to kids in need. Many schools have continued offering school lunches for students who have qualified for free or reduced lunches, but some families haven't had the means to get their children to the free lunch sites every day.

Interface reached out to a popular food delivery service to ask if they would help provide free school lunch delivery to the students from Fillmore Unified School District. The delivery service agreed, but shortly after realized that there aren't drivers for delivery in the Fillmore area, leaving many at risk children even more vulnerable to food scarcity. Interface's 211 Assistant Director, Angela Barosso said, "We thought it was such a worthy program, we didn't want to tell Fillmore we couldn't do it, so we decided to do it ourselves while still trying to find help from other agencies."

Until a reliable food delivery solution could be identified, three of 211's Specialists volunteered to start delivering a week's supply of lunches to eligible children and families. The volunteers delivered for two weeks in a row but continuing to deliver these door to door lunches would require a new partnership and collaboration between caring community entities.

Interface's 211 Director, Kelly Brown, reached out to former Fillmore Mayor and Interface board member Manny Minjares, who connected 211 with Bill H. Morris of MORRIS CHEVROLET who quickly responded to the call for assistance. Morris recruited 3 volunteer drivers who used the MORRIS CHEVROLET vans to pick up 100 bags for 54 families over the last two weeks. In addition to this service, Morris has been providing medical appointment and other transportation needs, exposing a stark reality of lack of transportation services available to vulnerable populations across our communities, particularly in rural areas.

Jason Corona, the Director of Child Nutrition Services at Fillmore Unified said, "Our Child Nutrition Services staff have really been amazing in all this to prepare 2000 meals bags in a few hours with the support from the Superintendent Dr. Palazuelos. Our families have really appreciated the help 211 and MORRIS CHEVROLET has been providing." The school lunch services will continue through the end of July, and MORRIS CHEVROLET said they are happy to help as long as they can. 211 is proud to partner with the Fillmore Unified School District and MORRIS CHEVROLET to create innovative solutions during these challenging times.

About Interface Children & Family Services
Interface is Ventura County's leading nonprofit social services agency, providing free, proven, and responsive services to address the complex physical and emotional needs of 59,000 local clients every year. Its 30 programs utilize 10 evidence-based practices to serve children, teens, adults and families who are typically low-income and struggling with poverty, domestic violence, human trafficking, homelessness, incarceration, child abuse, neglect and abandonment. Interface also connects 150,000 clients per year to a vast network of health and human services in 21 counties through its 2-1-1 Information and Assistance program.

Interface's core program areas are: Mental Health and Trauma Treatment, Domestic Violence Intervention and Child Abuse Prevention, Youth Crisis and Homeless Services, Human Trafficking Intervention, Reentry Services, Early Child and Family Development, and 2-1-1 Information and Assistance. The agency has pioneered several programs including launching California's first 2-1-1 call center, initiating Ventura County's Pay for Success Program, and was one of the first agencies in the state to open a domestic violence shelter. Interface opened the only human trafficking shelter for adults and is the only state funded provider of child abuse treatment in the region. The agency operates out of five locations including Camarillo, Moorpark, Oxnard, Santa Paula and Thousand Oaks, and will be providing early education and parent support at an additional 13 First 5 Neighborhoods for Learning Powered by Interface sites.

This important work is sustained through donations and grants from individuals and organizations, as well as by the work of dedicated volunteers and staff. For more information please contact Interface Children & Family Services at 4001 Mission Oaks Blvd, Suite I, Camarillo, CA 93012 by telephone at 805.485.6114 or visit www.icfs.org.