Congressman Dr. Ruiz Honors FIND Regional Food Bank CEO Debbie Espinosa with Congressional Record Entry
Coachella Valley community gathers to celebrate eight years of hunger-relief leadership
INDIO, CA — In mid-July, Congressman Dr. Ruiz (CA-25) gave remarks on the floor of the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC, honoring Debbie Espinosa, outgoing CEO of FIND Regional Food Bank, for her years of dedicated service to California's 25th Congressional District. These remarks were entered in the nation’s Congressional Record and on Thursday, August 27, Congressman Dr. Ruiz joined the Coachella Valley community for a surprise celebration marking Espinosa's departure, held at FIND's Indio headquarters, where he presented her with a framed copy of those remarks as a lasting tribute to her leadership. The event brought together an intimate group of community members, FIND staff, and local leaders to celebrate Espinosa's contributions to our communities. Espinosa is departing the Coachella Valley to lead Harvesters, a regional food bank network serving Missouri and Kansas.
During her tenure, Espinosa led FIND through a period of significant growth, including the groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting of a new 40,000-square-foot warehouse that expanded the food bank's storage capacity and created new workforce development pathways. Under her leadership, FIND organized emergency food distributions for federal employees affected by government shutdowns and helped bring the stories of farmworker families to Washington, D.C., where Espinosa briefed members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
"Debbie has been more than a community partner to me and to this district. She has been a trusted collaborator, someone I could call in the middle of a crisis and know she would show up," said Congressman Dr. Ruiz. "She never simply distributed food. She built bridges, connecting federal resources to local solutions, connecting policymakers to the families they serve, and connecting our communities to hope in their hardest moments. She did it with compassion, and she did it with professionalism, and she never lost sight of the people at the center of it all.
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