Directory of free food pantries and places for meals in Placer County, California
This page lists the food pantries, soup kitchens, and free grocery distributions serving Placer County. There are organizations across the county, from Roseville, Rocklin, and Lincoln to Auburn, the foothill towns along Interstate 80, and the North Lake Tahoe communities. Schedules of the pantries and meals sites shift often, so call before making the trip, especially in the rural foothill and mountain areas.
This is a guide to help you find where you may be able to get free food. The largest programs in the county include Feeding the Foothills, which is the regional Feeding America food bank formerly known as Placer Food Bank, the St. Vincent de Paul food locker and dining room in Roseville, the Auburn Interfaith Food Closet, The Salt Mine in Lincoln, and Sierra Community House in Kings Beach. Details on CalFresh food benefits, WIC, senior meals, and home-delivered groceries are further down the page.
- NOTE: In addition to hours varying, most sites welcome anyone in need regardless of income paperwork or religion, though a few ask for a photo ID or proof of address, and some limit help to their own community so be prepared.
Options for free food that serve the entire county
Feeding the Foothills (formerly Placer Food Bank)
8284 Industrial Avenue, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 783-0481. Website: https://feedingthefoothills.org/.
Feeding the Foothills is the Feeding America food bank for Placer, El Dorado, and Nevada counties, and it supplies most of the pantries and meal programs on this page. Food is not handed out at the Roseville warehouse itself; instead, the food bank runs free monthly PantryToGo drive-thru distributions at rotating community sites, including Denio's Market in Roseville, Johnson-Springview Park in Rocklin, McBean Park in Lincoln, and stops in Colfax, Foresthill, and Sheridan. No one needs to prove income, and staff can also help residents apply for CalFresh in English or Spanish. Call the main number or check the food bank's website for the current distribution calendar and a full list of partner pantries.
Seniors First – Meals on Wheels Placer County
12183 Locksley Lane, Suite 205, Auburn, CA 95602. (800) 878-9222. Website: https://seniorsfirst.org/.
Seniors First is the Meals on Wheels provider for Placer County, delivering fresh and frozen meals to homebound residents age 60 and older, including short-term help for seniors recovering from an illness or hospital stay. The nonprofit also runs Senior Caf� lunch sites in Auburn, Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, and Colfax, where older adults can share a hot weekday meal. Meals are offered for a small voluntary contribution, and no senior is turned away over an inability to pay.
CalFresh Food Benefits – Placer County Health and Human Services
Offices: 1000 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 220, Rocklin; 11434 B Avenue, Auburn; 5225 North Lake Boulevard, Carnelian Bay. (888) 385-5160
CalFresh, California's version of SNAP food stamps, loads monthly grocery money onto an EBT card that works at supermarkets and many farmers markets, where Market Match programs can stretch benefits spent on fresh produce even further. Households can apply online at BenefitsCal.com or GetCalFresh.org, by phone, or in person at the county offices in Rocklin, Auburn, or Carnelian Bay near Lake Tahoe.
Placer County WIC
Rocklin: 1000 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 150 – (916) 784-6447
Auburn: 11434 B Avenue, Suite 660 – (530) 889-7187
Lincoln: 110 Gateway Drive, Suite 210; Kings Beach: 265 Bear Street
WIC provides healthy food benefits, nutrition counseling, and breastfeeding support for pregnant women, new mothers, and children under age five. Families already receiving Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, or CalFresh usually qualify automatically, and appointments are available at all four county offices.
Roseville
St. Vincent de Paul of Roseville – Food Locker and Dining Room
Food Locker: 503 Giuseppe Court, Suite 8, Roseville, CA 95678 and Dining Room: 105 Bonita Street, Roseville, CA 95678. Call (916) 781-3303
St. Vincent de Paul runs two of the busiest food programs in South Placer. The Food Locker hands out curbside bags of groceries several mornings a week and stocks formula, baby food, and diapers for children up to age three, with home delivery available for homebound elderly and disabled residents of Roseville. A few blocks away, the Dining Room serves a fresh hot meal most days of the week, including weekend afternoons.
The Salvation Army – Roseville Corps
100 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 784-3382. Website: https://roseville.salvationarmy.org/
The Roseville corps operates a weekday food pantry with boxes of canned goods, bread, and fresh produce when available, along with a weekly hot breakfast and a weekly lunch. Bring identification for everyone in the household when visiting the pantry.
The Rock of Roseville
202 Bonita Street, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 789-7625
This church distribution sits on the same street as the St. Vincent de Paul dining room, which makes it easy to combine the two in one trip. Groceries usually go out one morning a week on a first-come basis.
Bridgeway Christian Church – Community Closet
8150 Industrial Avenue, Building A, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 238-5321
Bridgeway's Community Closet runs a weekly drive-thru grocery distribution from its campus on Industrial Avenue, next door to the Feeding the Foothills warehouse. Volunteers load food directly into vehicles, so the line moves quickly.
First United Methodist Church of Roseville
109 Washington Boulevard, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 783-3464
The downtown Methodist church runs a weekly soup kitchen rather than a grocery pantry, serving a hot midday meal most days near the historic district. It is one of the few regular walk-in meals in Roseville outside of the Salvation Army and the St. Vincent de Paul dining room.
Harvest Community Church
1376 Blue Oaks Boulevard, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 771-4781
Harvest holds a monthly drive-thru food distribution that runs while supplies last, so arriving early matters. It is a convenient fill-in for families in the Blue Oaks area between visits to the larger pantries.
Life Community Church
10020 Foothills Boulevard, Roseville, CA 95747. (916) 788-2697
Life Community runs curbside grocery giveaways a couple of times each month while supplies last. Past distributions have included baby formula, diapers, and holiday meals for families and seniors in west Roseville.
Rhema Christian Center
658 Commerce Drive, Suite E, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 780-2121
Rhema opens its pantry once a month with a mix of canned and frozen meat, dairy, bread, and household basics such as laundry detergent and toiletries alongside the groceries.
Roseville Alano Club
111 5th Street, Roseville, CA 95678. (916) 781-2763
Best known as a recovery clubhouse in old town Roseville, the Alano Club also runs a weekly morning food pantry that is open to the public. Call ahead during the week to confirm food is on hand before coming.
Rocklin, Lincoln, and the Loomis Basin
Rocklin does not currently have a standalone walk-in pantry of its own, but residents are covered several ways: the PantryToGo drive-thru stops monthly at Johnson-Springview Park, the Loomis Basin Food Pantry accepts Rocklin households, Seniors First operates a Rocklin Senior Caf�, and the Roseville pantries are only minutes away.
The Salt Mine
590 Lincoln Boulevard, Lincoln, CA 95648. (916) 645-3778
The Salt Mine is Lincoln's anchor food closet, handing out curbside groceries most weekday mornings with limited weekend availability. Service is restricted to residents of Lincoln and Sheridan, which keeps lines short and lets volunteers give more food per household.
St. Vincent de Paul – Lincoln
280 Oak Tree Lane, Lincoln, CA 95648. (916) 645-7201
The Lincoln conference of St. Vincent de Paul runs its food pantry by appointment only. Call the number above, leave a message with the answering service, and a volunteer will call back to arrange a pickup, which makes this a workable option for people who cannot stand in standard pantry lines.
Lincoln Amazing Grace Seventh-day Adventist Church
600 McBean Park Drive, Lincoln, CA 95648. (916) 408-4408
This church across from McBean Park runs a weekly drive-thru where volunteers load pre-packed bags of groceries into vehicles while supplies last. The park itself also hosts one of the county's monthly PantryToGo produce distributions.
Loomis Basin Food Pantry (First United Methodist Church of Loomis)
6414 Brace Road, Loomis, CA 95650. (916) 652-0469
The longtime Loomis Basin food closet now operates from the Methodist church office on Brace Road, with food available on most weekdays and a monthly allotment of several bags of groceries per household. It serves the whole Loomis Basin, meaning Loomis, Penryn, Newcastle, Ophir, and Rocklin, and normally asks for a photo ID and proof of local residency.
Lilies and Sparrows
Calvary Christian Center, 4655 King Road, Loomis, CA 95650. (404) 969-2274
Lilies and Sparrows runs a weekly daytime food distribution out of Calvary Christian Center in rural Loomis. It is one of the newer programs in the area and a useful backup once a household has used its monthly allotment at the Brace Road pantry.
Celebration Family Worship Center – Sheridan
5721 Tenth Street, Sheridan, CA 95681. (530) 923-1849 or (916) 521-4533
This is the only regular food distribution based in Sheridan, a rural community in the far northwest corner of the county. Groceries are handed out curbside one evening a month; check the church's website or call for upcoming dates.
Auburn, Colfax, and the Sierra Foothills
Auburn is the hub for the foothill communities along Interstate 80 and the Foresthill Divide. Colfax residents are served by a Seniors First caf� and by monthly PantryToGo stops in addition to the pantries below.
Auburn Interfaith Food Closet
1788 Auburn Ravine Road, Auburn, CA 95603. (530) 885-1921
Now located on Auburn Ravine Road, the Interfaith Food Closet is the main pantry for central Placer County, serving households from Loomis up to Emigrant Gap and from Lake of the Pines over to Foresthill. It is open weekdays, with some evening and monthly weekend availability, and a home delivery program covers people who cannot get to the closet. Food includes fresh produce, dairy, and meat in addition to shelf staples.
The Salvation Army – Auburn Corps
286 Sutter Street, Auburn, CA 95603. (530) 889-3990
The Auburn corps keeps its food pantry open several weekdays, with appointment-only help on the others, and adds free holiday food boxes and turkey dinners around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Auburn Seventh-day Adventist Church (Adventist Community Services)
12225 Rock Creek Road, Auburn, CA 95602. (530) 823-0345
The Adventist campus on Rock Creek Road runs two different weekly programs: a hot meal with sack lunches geared toward homeless neighbors, and a separate walk-in grocery distribution for housed clients. Holiday meals are served here as well.
Sierra Reach Ministries
18015 Applegate Road, Applegate, CA 95703. (530) 878-2705
Sierra Reach runs a weekly morning food closet for the small communities between Auburn and Colfax, including Applegate, Weimar, and Clipper Gap, where it is the only regular pantry for miles.
Celebration Church – Meadow Vista
990 Meadow Gate Road, Meadow Vista, CA 95722. (530) 878-1365
This Meadow Vista congregation keeps a small pantry that shares food in connection with its weekend services. Call the church office for details if you are not a regular attendee.
Sierra First Baptist Church – Alta
33990 Alta Bonny Nook Road, Alta, CA 95701. (530) 389-2168
Sierra First Baptist runs a weekly midday pantry serving the upper Interstate 80 corridor around Alta, Dutch Flat, and Gold Run, some of the most isolated communities in the county.
Mountain Folk Food Bank – Iowa Hill
3071 Iowa Hill Road, Iowa Hill, CA 95713. (530) 320-3969
Mountain Folk serves the remote Iowa Hill area across the North Fork canyon from Colfax, opening a few afternoons each month. For a community with no store and a long drive to town, it is a genuine lifeline.
Elijah's Jar Food Closet – Foresthill
24617 Foresthill Road, Foresthill, CA 95631. (530) 367-3085
Elijah's Jar has been the Foresthill Divide's year-round food closet since 2003, supported by a coalition of local churches. It serves low-income families, seniors, and disabled residents from Foresthill out to Michigan Bluff, Baker Ranch, and Yankee Jims, an area with no public transportation.
Lord Sabaoth Ministries – Foresthill
24500 Main Street, Foresthill, CA 95631. (916) 835-1199
Lord Sabaoth runs a weekly curbside food distribution on Main Street in Foresthill, giving Divide residents a second regular option alongside Elijah's Jar.
North Lake Tahoe: Kings Beach, Tahoe City, and the West Shore
Sierra Community House – Hunger Relief
265 Bear Street, Kings Beach, CA 96143. (775) 545-4083. Website: https://sierracommunityhouse.org/our-services/hunger-relief/
Sierra Community House absorbed the longtime Project MANA program and is now the hunger relief provider for the entire North Tahoe and Truckee region. Its weekly walk-up distribution at the Kings Beach office offers fresh produce, proteins, bread, and pantry staples with no ID, income proof, or paperwork of any kind, and home delivery is available for residents around the lake who cannot come in person. Staff work in English and Spanish and can also help with CalFresh applications. Additional weekly distributions are held in nearby Truckee and Incline Village for those able to travel.
Placer County Health and Human Services – Tahoe Office
5225 North Lake Boulevard, Carnelian Bay, CA 96140. (530) 546-1900
The county's lakeside office between Tahoe City and Kings Beach keeps emergency food boxes on hand during weekday business hours, in addition to processing CalFresh, Medi-Cal, and other benefits. It is a practical first stop for anyone at the lake whose food emergency cannot wait for the weekly distribution.
Additional Food Resources
Families with school-age children can find free summer and school-break meal sites through the USDA Meals for Kids locator, and every school district in the county offers free or reduced-price school meals during the year. If nothing on this page fits your situation, dialing 211 connects Placer County residents with a referral specialist who can check for newer or smaller programs.
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