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Editor’s note: In a previous version of this article, a photo of Gloria Wallace, board chair of Ecumenical Hunger Program was mislabeled. The error has been corrected.
A hidden food crisis is brewing heading into the holidays, leaders of Peninsula food banks say. Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, the largest food bank in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, has stopped purchasing meat for its food distribution clients after demand for services skyrocketed, donations flagged and food prices surged, Second Harvest’s CEO Leslie Bacho said.
Second Harvest is currently serving an average of 500,000 people each month, a number which first surged during the pandemic and then never dropped. Just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization was serving only 250,000 people monthly.
Other food distribution services across the Peninsula, many of which partner with Second Harvest, say they have seen a similar increase in demand over the last few months, which many attribute to the rising cost of goods and the high cost of living in the area, as well as the sunsetting of many of the pandemic-era benefits for individuals.
“We have a crisis right now where people cannot afford their basic needs,” Bacho told this news organization.
Bacho said that the number of people that use Second Harvest’s food distribution services has climbed so high, her team now estimates that 1 in 6 people in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties is making use of Second Harvest.
“That number seems startling in our affluent community, but it’s just that we have a huge swath of our community that is working in these low wage jobs and can’t afford to make it here,” she said. “That’s the reason we’re not providing meat right now. That’s the reason our budget is so constrained.”
Lesia Preston, executive director of Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto, said she wants people to understand that “this (crisis) is real.” Food distribution services like Ecumenical Hunger Program, which is supplied by Second Harvest, say that the lack of meat has been a struggle, especially heading into the holidays when their clients want turkeys, ham and other meat options for their holiday dinners.
“When Second Harvest Food Bank, this large provider is saying they don’t have meat… People depend on that,” she said. “And when (clients) don’t have money to buy food at all, and we can only give out canned goods and stuff, that’s very difficult.”
The increasing demand for food
Second Harvest of Silicon Valley collects data on the number of people that make use of its food distribution services. Bacho said the number of people it served waned to 400,000 as people started to go back to work after the pandemic, up until inflation hit and the numbers started to climb back up to where they are now.
Bacho also said that low unemployment numbers in the two counties are obscuring just how many people are struggling with food insecurity in Silicon Valley. For many people, working full time isn’t enough, in an area where cost of living and rent is so high, she said.
“People don’t really understand the crisis that is happening in our community. People feel like ‘oh, unemployment is low, so people are back to work,’” explained Bacho. “But what they don’t understand is that so many of the people that we are serving are working — they may even be working two jobs — but they are not able to meet their basic needs.”
Participation in California’s CalFresh food stamp program tells a similar story, as levels of participation in CalFresh in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties are currently the highest they have been in the last decade. According to state CalFresh data from September 2024, there are currently 82,806 households in Santa Clara County and 21,573 households in San Mateo County that receive food stamps.
“As soon as inflation hit, especially the prices of food and fuel … we saw the numbers tick up,” said Bacho in regard to the number of people on food stamps.
San Mateo County’s Human Services Agency confirmed that the number of people using government food assistance has skyrocketed.
“The demand for CalFresh, formerly known as food stamps, has doubled since the beginning of the pandemic,” said a representative from the Human Services Agency in an email to this news organization.
Lines ‘wrapped around the corner daily,’ declining support
Other local food distribution services say they are facing similar challenges. Preston said that lines for the grocery distribution at Ecumenical Hunger Program are “wrapped around the corner daily.” Preston said that they are seeing more working families in their food line, who are “employed, but not enough to cover the cost of living.”
Orlando Cardona, the pastor of Verbo Church, which runs a food distribution service in North Fair Oaks, said that his organization has seen the number of people needing food assistance from their program dramatically increase, even since the summer.
Despite the high demand for food, both Preston and Bacho say that monetary support for food assistance has flagged for their food banks since the pandemic, both due to declining government support and slowing donations from individuals. Second Harvest is also receiving “significantly” fewer food donations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture compared to the height of the pandemic, said Bacho.
“The challenge we’re facing right now is we are serving almost the same number of people we served at the height of the pandemic but with dramatically fewer resources,” Bacho said. “We’re receiving about 40% less funding than we were receiving at the height of the pandemic, and yet we’re providing almost the same amount of food.”
Both Preston and Bacho say that the attention paid to hunger during the pandemic meant that many more people were motivated to donate, but with less attention paid to the issue in recent years, it’s not top of mind for most potential donors.
“During the pandemic, our issue was really front and center; people saw long lines of cars lining up for food … and that’s when we saw a dramatic increase in support,” said Bacho. “We’re still receiving more funding than we received before the pandemic, but it’s just not at the scale that we need.”
In a press release, Samaritan House, a food distribution program in San Mateo, said that they have seen a drastic dip in donations this fall, which they attribute to economic conditions.
At the same time, individual households facing food insecurity are also receiving less support than they were during the pandemic. In response to the pandemic, California raised every household’s monthly food stamp allotment to the maximum amount allowed based on household size. However in February 2023, food stamp benefits were reduced back to regular amounts.
“When that went away, suddenly we have some households that lost like $150 a month,” said Bacho. “The lowest benefit you could receive now is like $39, which doesn’t really go anywhere here.”
There are numerous other pandemic-era federal and state supports that have since expired, including various tax credits, expanded unemployment insurance, stipends to cover internet costs, emergency rental assistance and more.
A lack of protein, organizations seeking donations
With demand so high, Bacho says that Second Harvest has had to make some “tough choices” about their budget to try to best meet the needs of the 500,000 people that they serve. One of those tough choices has been to forgo purchasing meat, and to instead focus their limited resources on high-demand foods that they cannot consistently receive through donations, such as eggs.
“In July, at the start of our fiscal year, we saw (wholesale) egg prices were doubling versus what we had budgeted due to the avian flu,” explained Bacho. “We survey our clients and partners to see which items are most desired, and eggs are always at the top of that list. And so we said in order to provide eggs, we’re going to put a pause on providing meat.”
Though the organization is still receiving some meat through donations, Bacho said that Second Harvest is prioritizing that meat for hot meal programs.
Patti Brewer, a Redwood City resident who has volunteered at Second Harvest’s San Mateo Event Center distribution site since the pandemic, said that she has noticed that Second Harvest has not been able to provide as much protein for their clients.
“There’s less variety in proteins,” she said. “There’s more starches, vegetables and staples, where before we would get some more food items that are a treat for people. When I first started, we were able to give out meat, eggs and milk every week … and now it’s like they only get meat or only get eggs or milk.”
Second Harvest provides a large portion of groceries for many of the other food distribution centers around San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Representatives from these organizations, such as Ecumenical Hunger Program and Samaritan House, said that their operating budget and clientele have been noticeably affected by the lack of meat that Second Harvest is able to provide.
“With the protein shortage, we’re receiving less and less protein, it impacts our operating funds,” said Laura Bent, CEO of Samaritan House at its Tuesday, Nov. 19, Thanksgiving food distribution event. “(We’re using) our donated funds, which we’re grateful for, but we’re using that to purchase protein, where in the past we wouldn’t have had to do that.”
Preston said that Ecumenical Hunger Program has pretty much stopped receiving meat from Second Harvest all together, and that she doesn’t know how her organization will provide meat for the holidays. Preston also said that meat at the holidays is a “special treat” for families that have little else.
“(Second Harvest) was our number one source (of meat) for the holidays, so that’s going to hit big right there,” said Preston. “We can’t tell people, ‘hey, become a vegetarian,’ because people eat meat.”
Both Ecumenical Hunger Program and Samaritan House are asking for donations of turkey, poultry and hams leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“Samaritan House is facing a significant shortage of protein items needed for … Thanksgiving and December holiday distributions,” wrote Samaritan House in the press release. “Samaritan House is turning to its community network to help recover the protein loss to provide holiday meals to the most food insecure families in our community.”
Bacho said that Second Harvest was already moving away from purchasing turkeys at the holidays, as many of their clients hail from cultures where a Thanksgiving or winter holiday turkey is not the norm, and many people who are food insecure have trouble storing a large turkey at home. Second Harvest is not asking for donations of turkeys at this time, however she said that the fact that the food bank has had to forgo buying turkeys entirely is symbolic of just how dire the situation is for the many food insecure residents of Silicon Valley.
Second Harvest will prioritize giving turkeys donated by community members to hot meal programs or soup kitchens that have already promised a hot holiday meal to clients. Bacho said that though holiday meals are important, she feels it is more important that community members facing food insecurity are fed and healthy every day of the year.
“Yes, we all think of the holidays and we all think about turkeys as being really important,” she said. “But what we should really be focused on is, how are we ensuring that everyone can meet their basic needs day to day? … What’s important is that everybody is able to sit down for a meal with their families or loved ones or themselves every day of the year.”
She also hopes that people will consider volunteering for and donating to food assistance programs year-round, not just during the holidays.
“We’re very dependent on volunteers, but during the holidays we are full with volunteers,” she said. “We need volunteers year-round.”
How you can help
Ecumenical Hunger Program is asking for monetary donations to help with purchasing meat for the holidays, and to help pay for the new warehouse that the organization recently purchased to store food donations. Preston said they are also looking for donations of gift cards so that families can purchase meat themselves.
Samaritan House is accepting monetary donations to its Food & Nutrition Program. The organization is also accepting donations of frozen meats such as turkeys, chickens, hams and roast beef at its headquarters located at 4031 Pacific Blvd., San Mateo.
Verbo Church is seeking monetary donations to its food distribution program to help the program remain in the community following a large rent hike.
Second Harvest is calling for more monetary donations to help them purchase more essentials such as eggs, milk and meat for the families they serve. Bacho said that for every dollar donated, Second Harvest is able to provide enough food for two meals, as most of their food is donated at the cost of shipping and handling.
