Everyone deserves access to healthy food

Our community is in crisis. Record-high food and gas prices, a housing shortage and the financial devastation caused by the pandemic have prompted another surge in the need for food assistance. We are now serving about 500,000 people every month.

In many ways, this is worse for our clients than the height of the pandemic — neighbors struggling to recover from the pandemic faced another blow to budgets as inflation and world events caused prices for gas, food, rent and other necessities to skyrocket. Families who stopped using Second Harvest after the height of the pandemic were forced to return. In addition, pandemic support programs like the child tax credit, rent relief and increased CalFresh benefits are either gone or being phased out, placing further stress on low-wage households

When anyone reaches out to Second Harvest, we are there to serve them. To meet such an extraordinary level of need, we have doubled the amount of food we source and distribute since the pandemic began. Free groceries from Second Harvest ensure that no one in our community has to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table. By providing fresh, free groceries we help our clients make room for unexpected expenses – and for the possibilities that open up when basic and immediate needs are met.