Food Security United States Project #15277

100,000 meals for hungry Silicon Valley families

by Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

100,000 meals for hungry Silicon Valley families

Project Report | Nov 16, 2020
Give What Matters

By Lejla Bojer | Corporate Philanthropy Officer

Ernesto

In a time of prolonged uncertainty, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley continues to provide something our clients can count on: regular access to nutritious food.

The impact of COVID-19 and subsequent economic downturn has resulted in job loss, wage loss and the depletion of savings, which has led to a significant increase in the level of food insecurity across Silicon Valley. We are now providing food to 500,000 clients on average every month, which is twice as many people as we served pre-pandemic.

The worry of financial instability is always a heavy burden to carry, but it feels especially difficult to bear during the holiday season when struggling families are doing their best to find ways to celebrate. And while the holidays will likely look and feel different for all of us this year, we believe food is something people should be able to count on to bring comfort and joy to their families, even in the midst of upheaval.

Giving food to families, multi-generational households, seniors, veterans or college students offers more than just nourishment, it provides hope, happiness and security. Lifting the burden of food insecurity means there is one less thing for our clients to worry about, and instead they can focus on finding the joy this holiday season. With your support we can continue to give what matters to our community.

Your gift helps protect the health and wellbeing of our community. It also provides local families the opportunity to preserve and create new traditions that center around food, which is especially important when other traditions may be hard to maintain.

Your gift will ensure that local families can enjoy a delicious, comforting meal together this holiday season and continue to get the healthy groceries they need in the year ahead.

“When I started going and I saw the food, it was true: vegetables, milk, eggs, cereal. All of that is what we normally eat, and I can take advantage of that. And I do use all of the food. It just benefited me so much, because getting those foods for free can help me pay delayed bills.” – Elizabeth (client).

Thank you for giving local families what matters—the peace of mind that comes with knowing they can get nutritious food when they need it.

“My granddaughter is the world to me, and I just want to hug her. When all of this is over, we got to make up for those hugs that we missed.” – Ernesto (senior client)

Food Distribution Site

Elizabeth

Food Distribution Site

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Jun 4, 2020
COVID-19 Response: Everything Changed Overnight

By Lejla Bojer | Corporate Philanthropy Officer

Guadalupe's Daughter

Even during a global pandemic, Guadalupe and her family know that eating a meal together at the dinner table is critical to their well-being. The family is able to come together because of the pre-boxed food they receive from Second Harvest, which is distributed by our partner Urban Services YMCA’s Community Resource Center.

Guadalupe, her husband and their kids live in South San Francisco. When one of her children was diagnosed with autism, she became a stay-at-home mom to help support his development. Once the spread of COVID-19 forced everyone to shelter in place, her husband lost his hourly wages as an Uber/Lyft driver. “We don’t have any income right now,” Guadalupe said.

Guadalupe says her kids especially like getting spaghetti and fruit from the boxes, and her family also loves when she is able to make beans, rice and sauces from the vegetables and spices they receive. What Guadalupe loves is that she has food to give her kids every day.

“What we enjoy the most is the fact that we’re all sitting together, eating together.”

Guadalupe is just one of thousands of clients who visit food distribution sites every month. Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is making sure that is enough food for everyone that needs a healthy meal. Here are some of the challenges Second Harvest faces because of COVID-19:

The increase in need: Before COVID-19, there was significant income inequality in Silicon Valley that led Second Harvest to serve an average of 270,000 clients/month.

We served over 500,000 people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in April 2020 — that is an 85% increase since the start of the COVID-19 cri
In April, we distributed 9.7M pounds of food, up about 45% from pre-pandemic.

The fluctuations of the food supply chain: Much like grocery stores, we are impacted by fluctuations in the supply chain, which means that we may not receive certain products in the same timeframe as we did before. We are working creatively to pack boxes with a variety of nutritious staples for our community.

We are acquiring protein, dairy, perishables and fresh produce as expected, but are experiencing longer than normal wait times to receive dry good deliveries (rice, pasta, etc.).
We are purchasing approximately 40% of our food. Pre-pandemic, we purchased about 25%, the remaining 75% coming from donations.

Operational changes: Our former operational and distribution models have been completely redesigned so that we can properly enforce social distancing measures and decrease contact between staff, volunteers and clients.

We are now pre-boxing food at our warehouses. Currently, of the total pounds of food we distribute to the community, over 70% is through pre-boxed methods.

Before COVID-19, our network of partners hosted a total of three drive-thru distributions. Since mid-March, we have worked hard to bring that number up to over 90.
We have quickly expanded our delivery model for homebound seniors and adults with disabilities. Through partnerships with Catholic Charities, Team Rubicon and others, we are delivering food to 6,000 clients in their homes.
116 California National Guard soldiers remain on-site packing boxes and their linguistic experts are assisting our Food Connection Hotline. They are with us through the end of May, and we are lobbying for an extension.
With assistance from Cisco, we have secured a 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse from Prologis for six months at no charge. This space allows us to sort and pack more boxes of food.

Dinner - Thank you!

Guadalupe's Son

Guadalupe

Ariella - California National Guard

Thank you volunteers!

Links:

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

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Jul 13, 2016
THANK YOU for feeding our hungry neighbors!

By Donna Peace | Corporate Relations Officer

Baby Kelemeni thanks you for standing up for kids!

Thank you on behalf of the 85,000 local kids who will receive healthy, fresh food from Second Harvest Food Bank. You’ve made sure kids are free to be kids. Your generous support helped make this our most successful Kids Campaign to date, raising $6.4 million to feed hungry kids in our community.

Your support allows us to partner with schools where the need is greatest! We’re developing Tailored School Solutions to best meet the needs of low-income students and families at high-need schools. Thanks to your support, we are on track to nearly double the number of schools we support. According to one school principal, food assistance from Second Harvest has a significant impact on her students and shared this with us.

“I was surprised because all we had to do was increase the amount of nutritious food we offered to our students, and their academic futures became brighter. We didn’t fully understand the impact of hunger on our students’ academic performance until we saw what our students could achieve when they weren’t hungry anymore.”

Your donations are coming at a critical time. Our Board of Directors has approved an ambitious new 3-year strategic plan with the goal of helping 40% more people. Starting on July 1, 2016, we’ll continue to strengthen our core food banking work—providing more food, more nutritious food, and easier to access food—while also launching an innovative effort to reimagine traditional food banking. For your reference, I’ve attached a one-pager outlining this new strategic plan.

Together, we’ll raise the profile of hunger in our community, as this problem is pervasive but too often hidden, and is one of the most fundamental challenges facing our region today. We believe our new vision, mission, and lofty goals will be realized with the support of corporations, organizations, and individuals like you who are willing to stand with us to provide this most basic of all needs.

Thank you!

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