Celebrating citizens who served during the pandemic -

CONCORD, CA (Dec. 9, 2021) — As my term as mayor comes to an end, I have the privilege of recognizing a person, group or organization with the Mayor’s Community Service Award.

The past two years have truly tested our resilience and demonstrated the importance of working together to care for one another. As mayor, ensuring that people in our community were fed became a key concern.

Although there were countless volunteers who worked to serve this concern, there are three people I would like to recognize for what they gave the Concord community. The hard work of these three individuals has made a lasting impact on thousands of people’s lives. The recipients of the Mayor’s Community Service Award are Dominic Machi, Christa Fairfield and Raymond Barbour.

Dominic is the director of Food Nutrition Services at the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. He oversees all food operations for the district, including the management of the central kitchen. During the pandemic, Dominic and his dedicated staff worked collaboratively with the city of Concord and Meals on Wheels to provide weekly senior meals in support of our Senior Meals & Helpers Program, Neighbor Express.

He also was responsible for providing meals to thousands of children every day while they were sheltered in place throughout the school district. Dominic developed innovate distributions methods and used the central kitchen as a hub to support multiple agencies in Concord.

Christa is the director of parish operation for St. Bonaventure’s Church in Concord. She has worked tirelessly to provide food through the food pantry at the church. When the pandemic made it difficult for families to secure food, the city of Concord worked closely with the St. Vincent De Paul food pantries, with the assistance of Christa, to organize all four Catholic church sites in Concord as weekly food distributions sites. Through her efforts, Christa helped deliver thousands of emergency food boxes and supplies to Concord families.

Ray is currently retired and serves on the Concord Planning Commission. He is known by many as a silent hero who is always there to support his community. Working with agencies such as the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, White Pony Express and First Five Contra Costa, Ray volunteered to manage the Concord Food Logistics Center during the pandemic. The center housed more than 90,000 sq. ft., or about 2 million pounds of food and supplies. This effort benefitted the entire region by helping those with food insecurities during the pandemic and the California wildfires.

The events of the last two years were unprecedented, but the path forward for our community has been paved by the incredible collaborators I am recognizing today. There are many groups and non-profit organizations who continue to rise to meet the needs of Concord families impacted by the pandemic. As we continue to navigate these times and keep ourselves and our families safe and our businesses open, let us remember to respect each other and be resilient in the face of the unknown. But know we are in this together.

I also want to take this opportunity to recognize the incoming mayor for Concord, Dominic Aliano. I look forward to our continued partnership in the coming year.

Mayor Tim McGallian can be reached at 925.671.2489 or email Tim.McGallian@cityofconcord.org

Tags: City of Concord, Tim McGallian