Bay Area food banks, pantries struggle with funding cuts as demand continues to rise

A cornucopia of food flows from the trunk of Pete Arballo s car on a contemporary morning A bright bag filled with limes clusters of green grapes and fluffy brown bread The Gilroy resident takes these items out of a shopping cart and meticulously arranges them alongside other groceries tightly wrapped in white plastic bags Related Articles The Bay Area startup behind Shark Tank s seaweed-based bacon An intriguing science exhibit in Berkeley explores the future of food Asparagus in the garden takes its time but is worth the wait Taste-Off Here are particular of the best frozen gyoza potstickers Go inside the factory where Peeps are made As he shuts the trunk the -year-old has finished the bulk of the family s grocery shopping for the week before he heads off to work around a m Instead of a grocery store the precious haul comes from the St Joseph s Family Center in Gilroy where staff and assistants hold bi-weekly food distributions for families in need Arballo who has been coming since looks forward to receiving fresh produce proteins and snacks that can help his family of five save money on groceries On special weeks the distribution will include bananas a favorite of his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter who has special requirements Any help I can get I need it Arballo announced But as the demand for food-related assistance grows in the Bay Area food pantries and banks are grappling with a drop in local donations to keep their operations afloat while dealing with skyrocketing food prices and cuts in federal funding that help their programs Now food organizations are tapping into their reserves to accommodate the loss of revenue and reallocating their food budgets to stretch their dollars including by reducing portion sizes for recipients and cutting back on expensive groceries like eggs in favor of more affordable items like produce and meats Arballo has noticed the difference at St Joseph s more and more people are showing up but the food allocations are smaller Fewer eggs a little less milk and a smaller box of root vegetables People wait in their cars to receive food donation outside St Joseph s Family Center in Gilroy Calif on March Dai Sugano Bay Area News Group Sometimes we don t get chicken sometimes we don t get eggs that s understandable Arballo declared I try not to expect everything because at the same time whatever you can get helps His experience is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to changes food pantries and food banks have undergone in the past inadequate years a trend felt throughout the region Pete Arballo of Gilroy loads donated food items into his car outside St Joseph s Family Center in Gilroy Calif on March Dai Sugano Bay Area News Group We re all just a little shocked at how challenging it has become mentioned David Cox executive director of St Joseph s as he proved a virtually empty storage room that would have been regularly stocked with donated food items I don t think anyone really anticipated all of these events to happen simultaneously to create the situation we are in Food insecurity in California meanwhile is on the rise with of all households and of households with children experiencing hunger Roughly people in the Bay Area or of the population have limited access to adequate food Last month the U S Department of Agriculture halted million worth of deliveries to food banks as first revealed by Politico The move comes weeks after more than billion in funding for hunger-relief programs was cut as part of the Trump administration s broader efforts to reduce federal spending The latest avian flu outbreak has only exacerbated the difficulty decimating chicken flocks by the millions and resulting in record-high egg prices The U S Department of Agriculture estimates that egg prices are expected to rise more than this year compared to about for general food prices At St Joseph s a majority of their donated food comes from Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley but the quantity they receive mostly in meat egg and milk has slightly diminished over the years due to funding challenges Cox announced During the peak of the pandemic in St Joseph s served people and distributed million pounds of food But last year the center served its highest number of clients in the last six years and only distributed around million pounds At Second Harvest million worth of food or about pounds was lately canceled due to sweeping federal cuts The food includes protein-rich items like milk chicken eggs and cheese The organization is at this moment trying to raise the money back through public donations So far however they ve raised only about out of their million goal Monetary donations have also declined since the pandemic and the food bank is at the moment operating on a deficit according to Chief Impact Officer Tracy Weatherby The bank provides food free of charge to more than local nonprofit and agency partners in the South Bay Eggs were cut from the distribution line-up in January because of rising costs and replaced with chicken and other meats The food bank continues to provide a nutritious mix of food Weatherby announced including fresh produce along with dairy protein grains and pantry staples St Joseph s Family Center Executive Director David Cox shows this news organization a virtually empty storage which used to be stocked full of donated food items before the COVID- pandemic at the center on March in Gilroy Calif Dai Sugano Bay Area News Group In the East Bay the Alameda County Neighborhood Food Bank saw a million hit to its food budget compared to the last fiscal year The reason Fewer monetary donations according to spokesperson Michael Altfest Their contributed revenue is also down about one-third since the peak of the pandemic The food bank is planning to cover funding gaps with its reserves but it can only last for so long Altfest announced Food banks are serving an ongoing increase in need now he stated That outpouring and help that was driven by urgency the COVID- pandemic is no longer there While the Alameda County Food Bank hasn t notably decreased the amount of food it provides to more than agencies in the county Altfest revealed its staff is reallocating the food budget to ditch eggs for more cost-efficient items like more fresh produce and veggie protein like beans The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano is continuing to see steady local donations but staff are preponderance concerned about how upcoming cuts to federal food programs will affect their ability to help local families according to Caitlin Sly president and CEO of the bank Lately loads of food the bank ordered through the federally funded Urgency Food Assistance Operation were canceled The bank typically relies on the operation to help provide food to neighborhood members in need The lost loads could have provided more than meals filled with proteins and produce like chicken and green beans the organization revealed About of the bank s funding comes from leadership grants while comes from individual donations The majority of its dollars go to its feeding and distribution campaign according to the bank s Impact Document The food bank also relies on endorsement from Local Food for Schools another federal project that will lose funding The activity helps states purchase food from local farmers and suppliers to serve at schools and child care centers It s heartbreaking to think about the families Sly commented We re going to have to explain why we can t give them as much variety that we have been able to provide for the past three years In the meantime St Joseph has other strategies of getting extra items for distributions They partner with local grocery stores like Safeway and Costco which deliver leftover food items including produce proteins and snacks Not all recipients however have noticed a drop in the quantity of food they have received over the years Gilroy resident Maria Gonzalez declared she hasn t seen a difference in the amount If anything she reported the center is in recent months starting to give more groceries especially fresh produce which she enjoys Gonzalez started coming to the distribution center in and drops by once or twice a month to pick up groceries for herself her ailing mother and a friend She is grateful for all the work helpers at St Joseph s do and hopes food pantries and banks will continue to be supported I pray for them every day they are wonderful people she revealed in Spanish They re volunteering their time to help us I m just overall very grateful Maria Gonzalez of Gilroy loads donated food items into her car outside St Joseph s Family Center in Gilroy Calif on March Dai Sugano Bay Area News Group