“Nothing else matters when your family is hungry,” says Second Harvest Food Bank client Delfina.
Food security is number one on the holiday wish list of the nearly a quarter of a million hungry people–primarily seniors and low-income families with children–who are served each month by the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.
With the new year fast approaching, the Food Bank has a sense of urgency about letting us know that it is about $1 million behind the amount it had raised last year at this time during its annual Holiday Food and Fund Drive. Reaching its goal of $15 million by year’s end is critical. Second Harvest raises nearly half its annual revenues during the holidays.
Non-profit organizations in Santa Clara that partner with the Food Bank to feed the hungry include St. Justin Community Ministry, River of Life Foundation Pantry, the Salvation Army, ALearn, Bill Wilson Center, Solidarity Fellowship, Pathway Society, St. Clare Parish, Scott Lane Elementary School and Mid-Peninsula Housing’s Riverwood Grove.
“Contributions people make to the food bank in turn benefit St. Justin Community Ministry,” says its director, Joe Bauer. “We’ve been with Second Harvest Food Bank since 1989, and it’s a valuable resource.” St. Justin’s Pantry and the River of Life Foundation Pantry are the primary nonprofits serving the hungry in Santa Clara. St. Justin’s Pantry alone gives Thanksgiving dinner fixings to some 600 families.
For information about Second Harvest Food Bank’s Curtner Center (San Jose) food drop off dock or to make a monetary donation, visit www.SHFB.org or call (866) 234-3663. There is also a Facebook link to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties website. Anyone who needs food should call Second Harvest’s Food Connection hotline: (800) 984-3663.