Food — from the stuffing on the Thanksgiving Day table to the gingerbread cooling on the countertop on Christmas Eve — is a cornerstone of the holiday season. But this November, as a consequence of the government shutdown, a 35% cut was made to the maximum benefits allotted to low income families through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); now, for many who rely on their electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards for groceries, a holiday meal has become an extravagance. With this in mind, non-perishable items with nostalgic festive flavors, such as packets of instant mashed potatoes and cans of cranberry sauce, have taken on a new importance for struggling families. Food banks and pantries, fueled by volunteers and donations, are stepping up to meet surging community needs during the holiday season.
Two such local food banks are Second Harvest of Silicon Valley (SHSV), which serves Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, and Second Harvest of Santa Cruz County (SHSC). Both have a straightforward, yet incredibly difficult, mission: to end hunger. To work towards this, each organization has established a diverse range of initiatives. These include helping applicants enroll to CalFresh (California’s version of the SNAP program); distributing groceries to low-income households; coordinating with schools and meal sites to ensure students have year-round access to healthy, balanced meals; and hosting nutrition education sessions and cooking demonstrations, teaching families skills for the preparation of inexpensive, healthy meals.
Community contributions are essential to all these endeavors: donations to food and fund drives provide the foundations for food supply, and there are many ways to volunteer. Typical roles include sorting, distributing, or delivering produce and donated non-perishables — other roles are that of a clerical volunteer, who is responsible for managing data and inventory, and an advocate, who actively champions policy proposals that address food insecurity. In the spring, SHSC organizes gleaning events, during which volunteers spend time outdoors, helping to gather food from local farms. Volunteer work involves substantial amounts of time and effort, but it is certainly impactful and fulfilling. Sandra Chavez, who has been volunteering with SHSC for 11 years and now serves as a program manager, testified to this, saying “I have the same mission [as Second Harvest:] to feed the community . . . what I love about this [role] is feeding everyone.”
Irvington students have ample means to pitch in at SHSV and SHSC. The food banks’ websites, shfb.com (SHSV) and thefoodbanksantacruz.com (SHSC), contain portals to register for events and make donations. SHSV enables people to start community fundraisers, and SHSC is currently running a Holiday Food and Fund Drive, in which every dollar donated enables distribution of 3 healthy meals. While some volunteering events take place during school hours or are closed to minors, many, such as SHSC’s “Saturday Sorts,” are open to students. SHSV, SHSC, and their vast volunteer network are united under a single goal — “to feed families” — and, during this “Season of Giving,” Vikings are invited to join them.
