When National Guard Master Sgt. Joseph Magat and his unit heard that they were being deployed to help with COVID-19 relief efforts, initially they thought they’d be serving somewhere nearby. Magat’s unit is based in Ventura County, out of the Channel Islands National Guard Station.
“We were all told it was going to be local, in Oxnard,” Magat told the Sun. “But then we were told it was going to be up north. Our commander said, ‘It’s OK if you want to back out now. Can everyone who still wants to volunteer, for any location, put your hands up?’ The whole auditorium still put up their hands.”
Magat’s unit was deployed to volunteer at the Santa Barbara County Foodbank on March 27, just as COVID-19 started to hit the county harder than the Foodbank could keep up with.
Judith Smith-Meyer, the Foodbank’s marketing communications manager, told the Sun that the Foodbank has essentially doubled its food distribution operations since the onset of the crisis, and the National Guard is helping with every aspect of the efforts.
Currently, Magat’s unit is set to be deployed until June 24. Smith-Meyer said the guard has provided 6,000 hours of work so far, and it will be at 10,000 by June 24.
“We are still hoping to extend [their deployment], but with economic reopening, we don’t know if they’ll be approved beyond June 24,” Smith-Meyer said.
“I didn’t realize how much the Foodbank was relied on in the community,” Magat said. “I was thinking, ‘If we do leave, how can they sustain the amount of work that we’ve been putting in?’ I don’t think it can be done.”
Magat is just one of countless volunteers in the county who have sacrificed their time, their ability to stay home, and in some cases their own safety to help the community pull through a strange and scary time. A big sacrifice the guard members made is being away from home, living in local hotels since their deployment started.
But Magat emphasized that living in a hotel is more than worth the fulfillment he’s gained from his deployment. His fellow guardsman Sgt. Jonathan Massey agreed.
“This is by far my easiest deployment,” said Massey, who’s been in the guard for 12 years. “My last deployment I was in Kuwait, and it was 135 degrees out there. … Our mission was to fight against ISIS.”
Massey said that getting to engage in humanitarian work, and staying in a hotel with more-than-bare-minimum amenities, is a much welcomed change of pace.
“This was something out of the realm that we normally do,” Massey said. “This allows us to give back to the community, which I’m all for.”
While this is the first time that the local Foodbank has benefited from National Guard deployment, other organized volunteer operations like AmeriCorps and the Medical Reserve Corps have served in the local community for years.
Operated through United Way’s Home for Good partnership since 2016, AmeriCorps is rapidly adjusting its operations to fit new and pressing needs.
“Historically, our outreach is very focused on our coordinated entry system and moving people from homelessness to housing,” said Emily Allen, director of homeless and veterans impact initiatives at Northern Santa Barbara County United Way. “With this COVID crisis, there has been a shift to making sure people have enough food to eat, making sure they have hygiene kits, making sure they’re getting public health information.”
AmeriCorps volunteer Allison Wahlig has witnessed this shift firsthand.
“I used to work at the Good Samaritan shelter, a place where people could come in and meet me that were living on the streets,” Wahlig said. “But since COVID, I haven’t been able to go there. … I just don’t do street outreach as much anymore.”
Now, Wahlig’s 20-hour per week volunteer schedule is spent at the Salvation Army.
“I help serve breakfast and lunch at the door to the homeless,” she said. “Then I go and pack food into boxes for distribution at the pantry at Salvation Army: So not only homeless, but families that are in need like low-income families, low-income individuals, can come and get food there. It’s pretty cool to be able to provide to the community because a lot of places have closed down due to COVID. Now I’m able to give everybody food.”
Wahlig, who started her year of AmeriCorps service in October 2019, said she never expected to be volunteering during such a critical and unpredictable time, but that her mentors at Salvation Army are her “rocks” through it all.
“They make it feel like there’s not a virus going on,” she said. “They make it feel like we’re a family at Salvation Army.”
While the National Guard members and AmeriCorps volunteers are helping provide basic needs to those feeling the economic impact of COVID-19, the Medical Reserve Corps is working directly with the infected.
Santa Barbara County Emergency Preparedness Manager Jan Koegler told the Sun that the reserve was activated in March, starting with their usual corps of 120 volunteers. Since then, the corps has more than doubled to 302 members.
Back in March, volunteers worked to set up the county’s COVID-19 response call center. Now, Koegler said, the focus has shifted to contact tracing and, for some specially trained members, “supporting community members who are in isolation at county-run isolation sites.”
“There are over 30 members trained to support those sites, and that training includes the use of PPE, because these volunteers are working with COVID positive individuals,” Koegler said. “Santa Barbara County Public Health Department provides isolation and quarantine sites for people who cannot safely isolate or quarantine at home. That may be because they don’t have housing, or they live in shared housing, or they live somewhere where there’s someone who’s very vulnerable.”
Koegler said that once a vaccine becomes available, the increased corps size will be more needed than ever.
“We’re hoping that they stay with us and continue to participate in our training, exercising, and response efforts because we need them,” Koegler said. “If we do get a vaccine and we’re vaccinating the community, then we’re going to rely on these Medical Reserve Corps members to help us run that operation as well.”
Reach Staff Writer Malea Martin at mmartin@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 4, 2020.