Silicon Valley nonprofits partner to expand food aid

At a time when hunger is at a high and resources are low, two Silicon Valley nonprofits are teaming up to tackle food insecurity.

Hunger at Home and Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen are working together to rescue more food and in turn produce additional meals across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Hunger at Home, an organization that recovers food from hotels, restaurants and other locations, will provide ingredients for Loaves & Fishes to prepare hot meals. In turn, Loaves & Fishes will reimburse Hunger at Home for operational costs and save on ingredients it would otherwise purchase for about $150,000 a year.

This collaboration will allow Loaves & Fishes to produce an additional 2,000 meals a month and cut food costs by about 20%, the organization estimates.

“Loaves & Fishes does do food recovery, however, that’s not our primary focus. That’s Hunger at Home’s primary focus,” Loaves & Fishes CEO David Hott told San José Spotlight. “So, why not (Hunger at Home) do what they’re really good at, and we do what we’re really good at, and we both benefit?”

Hunger at Home collects surplus fresh food that would otherwise be thrown away. Every year, Californians toss out enough food to comprise 2.5 billion meals. To prevent waste, state lawmakers passed legislation requiring certain businesses to begin donating edible ingredients to food recovery groups by 2025.

But picking up the produce can be a challenge with high fuel prices and limited storage capacity.

“If you look at the landscape with the need being greater than we’ve seen, the funding being less than we’ve seen, (this partnership is) creating some sustainability between two large organizations that can work together toward the same outcome,” Ewell Sterner, CEO of Hunger at Home, told San José Spotlight.

Reliance on food stamps is at nearly the highest it’s been in a decade in Santa Clara County, according to CalFresh data. Hunger will become more prevalent with about 55,000 residents expected to lose their food benefits due to expanded work requirements. In addition, the Bay Area has some of the most expensive grocery prices in the U.S. The cost has jumped 26.8% in the past five years compared to 24.7% nationally.

Residents are increasingly turning to organizations like Hunger at Home and Loaves & Fishes to get by. Meanwhile, these nonprofits are struggling to keep up with the soaring demand under the weight of federal cuts and increasing food prices.

Loaves & Fishes has been serving more meals each year. It is now preparing 2 million meals a year, compared to 1.8 million last year. In addition, Hott said each meal they prepare now costs $6, compared to $3 to $4 last year.

These hot meals have been critical for low-income older adults like P, who didn’t want to use his full name for privacy reasons. Everyday he goes to Piedmont Hills High School, where Loaves & Fishes serves meals, and also picks up extra meals for his disabled neighbor.

“It helps me, but it also helps the people I share with. Some can’t cook or don’t have access to a kitchen,” he said.

Sterner believes this joint venture could spur collaboration with other food aid organizations, with Hunger at Home delivering more produce to food banks and soup kitchens across the region.

“We’re in the business of saving lives and feeding people,” Sterner said. “The bottom line is that we can collaborate and feed more individuals.”

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.