A grant application error means more than 400 low-income Yuba County families and senior citizens are no longer getting free food.

The Brown Bag program, provided by Yuba-Sutter Gleaners Food Bank, discontinued services in Yuba County Jan. 1 because of a technicality: the nonprofit forgot to include an organizational flow chart with the application, one of the many requirements in the process.

"It's heartbreaking," Supervisor John Nicoletti said. "To have to say no to something so simple is frustrating."

Yuba-Sutter Gleaners is a nonprofit organization that distributes food items to help relieve immediate hunger for families and individuals who are unable to afford food and who do not receive adequate assistance from the federal government.

The program also receives local funding for smaller programs, such as the Brown Bag, through the county's Community Development Block Grant programs funded by the state. Gleaners received $7,500 from Yuba County for the program two years ago. The organization also missed out on funding last year, but was able to fundraise to keep the brown bags going in 2008. They weren't so lucky for 2009.

"We were hoping something would come up," Gleaners Director Bernie Aldape said. "But nothing did."

Brown bags are normally distributed in several locations in Yuba and Sutter counties once every month.

Sutter County continues to provide the bags to 400 families with a $20,000 grant from Sutter's CDBG program.

Nicoletti said the Yuba County receives dozens of applications for the roughly $180,000 in CDBG funds allotted each year for community service groups. He said the process is very particular. The application review process is often overseen by the state.

"It's public money," Nicoletti said. "We have to make sure everything is accurate."

Aldape said the organization will try for the grant for both counties again next year. He said the nonprofit will try to be more consistent with who fills out the grant application. Having several different people fill out the applications may have contributed to the error.

This error is the latest issue with feeding local low-income residents. In August, the Quality Education Services Training (QuEST) announced it would discontinue food service to seniors in both Yuba and Sutter counties because of a funding shortfall.

A solution, though, was found less than two months later with only a small gap in service. That service is up for review again this summer.

But for residents like Richard Walker, the brown bag is a big help on limited income. He said its discontinuation is another blow to people in need.

Handicapped from several surgery-related mishaps, Walker's $927 monthly income from Social Security and Supplemental Security Income, can only go so far.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," the 70-year-old Linda resident said. "It makes me mad."

Nicoletti said the community stepped up when QuEST bowed out, but this time it's not the case.

"We found money and got extra help," he said. "We've had successes in a threatened program in the community, but sometimes things fall."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Andrea Koskey at 749-4709 or akoskey@appeal-democrat.com.