It’s Saturday morning and inside a sprawling room at the Richmond Recreation Complex, around 50 volunteers stack boxes of cornbread, sacks of potatoes, cans of chicken broth and other Thanksgiving essentials onto laden tables. Outside, even more non-perishables wait in a U-Haul. They’re prepping for the 10th annual Turkey Drive hosted by The Black Neighborhood, a Richmond nonprofit inspired by the Black Panthers, encouraging empowerment in Black communities. Volunteers are readying the 500 turkeys and 600 bags of food they…
It’s nearly noon, and a line of around 50 people is wrapped around the gated parking lot of the Bay Area Rescue Mission’s food pantry in Richmond’s Iron Triangle. Most people have empty bags, some have shopping carts, but all have a laminated number card in hand, denoting their place in line. Those at the front of the line have been waiting for five hours on this Tuesday in October, and the tables laden with food, blankets, hygiene items and…