Hunger Remains a Crisis in Silicon Valley

Images of turkeys and pumpkin pie are once again starting to appear regularly on our screens and in our inboxes as the holiday season rapidly approaches in Silicon Valley.

November is about food, and family, and being thankful, but far too many in our community are struggling and do not know where or when they will get their next meal. Even more troubling is the fact that the groups focused on food insecurity, led by Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, are struggling themselves to meet the need for food assistance in our region.

That need remains at the same historic high level as we saw in 2020 and 2021, during the height of the COVID pandemic. In fiscal 2023, Second Harvest served an average of 370,000 Santa Clara County residents each month. This is double the pre-pandemic service levels of 2019. The increased cost of gas and food staples such as eggs and milk plus the end of federal and state pandemic relief assistance has put a serious dent in the ability of Second Harvest and its partners to provide enough food for the hungry and food insecure in our county. As an example, in Santa Clara County, more than 75,000 households lost $12.6 million in monthly grocery purchasing power with the end of CalFresh Emergency Allotments in March.

As an example, every week Second Harvest provides and distributes food to approximately 1,000 families at the CalWORKS complex on Senter Road in San Jose. Until this spring, each family got a dozen eggs, a carton of milk and a package of chicken. However, once the pandemic relief programs ended earlier this year, Second Harvest was forced to cut the amount of food they distribute and now families only get milk and eggs one week and chicken the next. For many of these families, this distribution is their only source of these staples. As a result, we have infants, toddlers, and seniors who must go for a week or more without milk.

In Santa Clara County during the COVID pandemic, everyone – government, the tech industry, our non-profit community – stepped up and together we met the crisis head on and saved thousands of lives. While COVID is no longer a crisis hunger still is. So, we need to treat it as such. By necessity that means corporate donations need to be at the levels of 2020 and 2021. Unfortunately, Second Harvest has seen a 30% decrease in corporate financial support since the peak of the pandemic. At the same time, they served 476,000 people in fiscal 2023, 6,000 more than in fiscal 2021. We will not be able to feed the hungry in our community without more support from our largest and wealthiest companies. This is in their best interest as well. Many of the people they will be helping feed work for them. They clean their homes and offices, maintain their campuses, and drive their shuttles.

In addition to Second Harvest, there are multiple other nonprofit groups working hard to address food insecurity in our community that are facing the same challenges.

Our region has one of the highest costs of living on the planet and as a result food insecurity is an issue even for those with jobs, and college degrees, and a house in the suburbs. We can’t just make a donation, or fill a bin with canned goods, or volunteer only in November and December. Hunger in Silicon Valley is now a year-round issue.

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Second Harvest needs more than 1,000 volunteers in the next 30 days. You can sign up to volunteer at https://www.shfb.org/give-help/volunteer/ .

You can make a donation to Second Harvest at https://www.shfb.org/