Hunger for food banks’ services spurs new programs

The Bay Area’s four food banks anchor the Koret Food Program, efficiently providing healthy and nutritious food as well as education, referral, and emergency help to our community’s hungry.

Food banks have come a long way since the stereotypical warehouses filled with oversized canned and packaged food. Today they are committed to providing fresh, nutritious options focusing on healthy foods and fresh produce, contributing to the good health of their clients and helping combat obesity, which often results from the consumption of low-cost, high-fat foods, and thelack of access to fruits and vegetables. In another step to provide healthy food options, Alameda County Community Food Bank has discontinued stocking soda pop.

“The fresh produce deliveries have been a real blessing for our neighborhood,” said Martha Brown, a client of the East Oakland Senior Center, which receives donations from the Alameda Food Bank. “This provides us with what we really need for good health.”

Children who depend on school lunch programs for most of their daily nutrition may appreciate best the positive impact of food banks because unlike school, hunger takes no summer vacation. Those who must rely on school lunches from fall to spring can count on Summer Lunch, a federally funded program supported by Bay Area food banks that offers lunch to low-income children during the summer.

Seniors are also vulnerable to hunger. In response to an increasing need for food in the elderly community, food banks offer low-income seniors a weekly bag of groceries as part of the Brown Bag Program. Steffani Folber receives a bag of groceries delivered to her home every Friday through the Brown Bag Program supported by Second Harvest Food Bank.

“My bag makes all the difference for me,” Steffani says. “It has a lot of meaning for me, more than just the food. Looking out and seeing the bag on my doorstep every Friday reminds me that I matter, that someone cares about me. For me, the bag validates that I exist.”

Did you know…?

In the past year, Bay Area food banks provided up to 32 million pounds of food to their communities.

The Alameda County Community Food Bank recently relocated to a new facility with a new 5,500-square-foot cooler and freezer system that expands freezer space by 90 percent. This new space will help the Alameda County Food Bank serve its increasing number of clients.

Taking over for the Diablo Valley AIDS Center, which is closing, the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano runs the “Extra Helpings” program, serving 150 HIV/AIDS clients twice a month.

Through the Partners in Need Program, low-income people who need food assistance can volunteer their time at Second Harvest Food Bank in exchange for groceries. 508 people participate every month.

The San Francisco Food Bank addresses the challenges of San Francisco’s immigrant community through seven neighborhood Immigrant Food Assistance pantry sites. These sites eliminate language barriers and provide culturally familiar food for their clients.