FOOD | Pantry seeks volunteers during downturn

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Hackathon brings dozens of coders from around the district

More than 60 students typed and worked away in the cafeteria developing tech tools for teens Sunday at the annual Hackathon, sponsored by the Bionic Bruins and the Branham Programming Club.

Attendees from around the district spent 12 hours working on ways that would aid students in their daily lives, from modeling a speech AI model to extensions for Canvas that utilize ChatGPT.

The event offered free entry, prizes, activities and workshops for attendees.

The event began with a workshop that taught web technologies to help students with their projects. The material taught ranged from more beginning-level material like an introduction to Python, as well as more advanced topics.

“We want to be beginner-friendly so people who aren’t in computer science that don’t know a lot about (it) are able to come and get started with us,” said senior Andrew Goldberg, the Hackathon director.

— Aadyant Suresh Junior among 300 across the country chosen for national choir before the start of the pandemic.

Among the recipients is Steve Chiler, who receives CalFresh payments.

“Groceries are expensive and I’m on a fixed income, so it helps a lot,” Chiler said of the pantry.

Social worker Kevin Nguyen started the pantry during his tenure at Branham, and now Hollie Winzenread has taken on the mantle to coordinate volunteers at the school’s Pop-Up Pantry.

“I worry about food insecurity in general,” she said. “People will be making choices between gas for the car and food, medicine and food. …If you’re stressed out about either not having a home or losing your home, or not having or not being able to afford food for next week, that stress can lead to so many issues.”

With more than 35,000 students under 18 whose families receive CalFresh funding in Santa Clara, Winzenread said that there’s good a chance that “whoever you’re sitting next to” has food insecurities at home.

“You don’t know when you’re sitting in a classroom or if you’re hanging out somewhere, there’s a student next to you who you don’t know what their situation is,” she said.

Food bank’s budget 95% of SHFB’s support comes from community donations. With less funding, inflated grocery prices and fewer volunteers, Second Harvest of Silicon

Valley is in the need of donations the most.

Howard Levitan, who with his wife has volunteered at Second Harvest for 22 years, packs boxes for distribution. He directly sees the impact the food bank has had on the community.

“It has to be a major help (for the households), but it’s never sufficient,” he said. “Still, it not only does it provide them much needed nutrition, and also gives them the feeling that somebody cares, that they’re not just out there by themselves.”

Food prices have risen 30% over the pandemic, jumping 13.1% between July 2021 and July 2022, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Because of the higher prices and fewer donations, Second Harvest has cut back milk distribution from a gallon to a half-gallon at the beginning of this year.

“We’re essentially going back to pre pandemic times, if you will, but the cost of living here is not pre-pandemic times,” Winzenread said. “Inflation has hit everything more, so it’s worrisome. Food is a basic right, and people need to be able to have nutritious, good quality food.”

The joy of volunteering

Since people worked from home and had extra time, there were more volunteers over the pandemic and at Branham’s site, usually 10 volunteers participated. However, for the last few months, it was harder to get enough volunteers.

People would either sign up and not show up or not sign up at all. While Winzenread understands that people are busier now with the return of in-person work and school, volunteers are continuously needed.

Sophomore Yejun Shin, who has volunteered for a couple of months, sees helping the Branham’s PopUp Pantry as an accessible and “relatively easy” volunteer opportunity.

“If they just want to help the community in a smaller way, this is a good option,” Shin said.

To volunteer at Second Harvest, teen volunteers must be 12 years old and must have parental consent and submit an electronic permission form.

Volunteers can either sort and box the fresh produce and groceries or distribute food at sites such as Branham.

Levitan, the longtime Second Harvest volunteer, said that for teens, volunteering helps in “every aspect of life, professionally or personally.”

“It just makes you feel worthy that you’re doing something and not just focusing on bankers.”

Winzenread agrees, saying that volunteerism at the pantry has a profound effect for the volunteer and the community.

“When you care for your community, it’s more than just yourself,” Winzenread said. “It’s those who are around you. We’re all a healthier community in the long run because of it. Just by volunteering even once, I betcha people would have their eyes widened to the impact that it makes and how good it feels. When you do that. the smiles coming through that line of people are so grateful and thankful.”