The radio station Play 103.9 FM, along with Golden Empire Transit and a slew of other sponsors, held a charity event at the Valley Plaza to benefit the Partnership Food Bank.
The Partnership Food Bank, which is a subsidiary of the Community Action Partnership of Kern, provides food to destitute Kern county families.
The Partnership Food Bank has been struggling to meet the needs of the community due to this winter’s citrus freeze, which left many valley farm workers without a job and forced them to find outside help to support their families.
Play 103.9 disk jockeys Miguel “Mickey Rock” Sanchez and Adlai “D-Lay” Wilson vowed to live in a Plexiglas shack for 103.9 hours or until an entire GET bus was filled up with donations to the food bank.
At 6 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 19, “Mickey Rock” and “D-Lay” began camping out in the parking lot adjacent to the Valley Plaza GET bus station on the corner of Wible Road and Ming Avenue, giving status reports to Play 103.9 FM every 30 minutes.
When the bus was finally filled up with food and donations on Friday, Feb. 23, the two DJs were able to go home.
Representatives from the food bank came by every day to keep perishables from rotting.
Whenever the DJs needed to use the bathroom or wash up, they had to go to the public facilities located at the Valley Plaza GET bus station.
People brought them whatever they might need to be a little more comfortable, including air mattresses, pillows, a space heater and a television set.
“Mickey Rock” says that he was tricked by “D-Lay” into participating in the event. “He said there was going to be free food and girls.”
By Thursday, “Mickey Rock” was surprised that “I haven’t lost my mind yet.”
On average, the Partnership Food Bank feeds about 30,000 families a month, 50% of which are children.
However, with the lack of employment caused by the citrus freeze, they have had to feed about three times as many people than it normally has to, which is why, according to GET marketing manager Gina Hayden, “[this benefit] is so important.”
One woman was so inspired by what the program was receiving that she gave $200 to the Partnership Food Bank.”Mickey Rock” and “D-Lay” gave her a “shout-out” on the next half-hour report to the radio station.
Other sponsors that participated in the event included TV stations KERO Channel 23 and Azteca America channel 42, Kern Schools Federal Credit Union, the United Farm Workers, Radio Campesina 92.5 FM, and Tuff Shed, who provided the DJs with their temporary home.