Second Harvest Food Bank

By DENNIS WYATT

The San Joaquin Valley — the most productive farming region on the planet — is America’s food basket. e Valley grows more than 250 crops. When coupled with its weaker cousin in terms of farm production — the Sacramento Valley — the two combined produce 25 percent of this nation’s table food using only one percent of the farmland.

It is against this background of plenty that the Mantecabased Second Harvest Food Bank of the Greater Valley is ghting the battle against hunger in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties along with ve adjoining foothill counties.

Second Harvest of the Greater Valley is among 200 similar operations nationwide a liated with Feeding America. e member food banks serve as distribution centers to funnel food to community pantries much like the Safeway distribution center in Tracy supplies stores throughout Northern California. e partner food closets in the eight counties serve 35,000 unduplicated individuals each month. e warehouse operation handles more than 15 million pounds of food a year.

It arrives in the warehouse in several forms. ere are gigantic bins of produce that cost the food bank 6 cents to 20 cents a pound via the Farm to Family program that connects growers and packers directly to food banks for low cost fruits and vegetables. ey aren’t considered marketable due to size, shape, slight blemishes, or overproduction. ere are pallets of goods delivered by sponsors such as ConAgra Foods. ere are gigantic boxes and bins of miscellaneous items pulled from grocery store shelves because they are at or nearing advertised shelf life. en there are canned goods and such secured from various collection drives conducted by youth groups and non-pro ts.

All of that has to be sorted, set aside by food type, and then re-boxed or bagged.

Some of the items they receive aren’t food such as detergent, shampoo and toothpaste. ey gladly accept the items and send

them to food banks knowing those that ultimately receive them will be able to free up what limited money they have to buy food or perhaps pay a water or power bill. Volunteers play a huge and critical role. ey provide needed manpower to sort the food. Volunteers wanting to help can do so for a few hours or a half a day. Volunteers can do so once or as many times as they like. e tasks are essentially sorting cans and sorting produce. ey can also help with free food distribution from a truck that takes fresh vegetables and fruits to area communities at scheduled locations. e biggest “puzzles” that volunteers Second Harvest helps sort out are the boxes that come from stores such a Target, SaveMart, Safeway and Walmart. feed 35,000 a month in 209 ey typically contain food that has reached its expiration date based on marketable shelf life. But that doesn’t mean the region. food isn’t still good — far from it. Second Harvest sta has become experts at reading expiration dates. Speci c food has speci c times where they are still good a er the stamped shelf life is reached. While perishables such as dairy products do not last long a erwards, canned goods and packaged items typically have a useful life of six months to a year depending upon the food item. ere is little worry once the sorted items are provided to the 102 food banks of the food going bad. It is almost always consumed within weeks of reaching a food pantry. Fundraising is critical to the e ectiveness of Second Harvest. While the donations of large items of food stu by producers, distributors, and retail stores is the backbone of how the nonpro t agency helps feed struggling arrangements, donated funds allows them to purchase perishable items such as produce. Due to arrangements Second Harvest has made, $1 can buy the equivalent of $5 worth of food. To explore volunteer opportunities, donate, or nd out more information about the non-pro t, go to localfoodbank.org. ●

Order now for the holidays!

Trunk or Treat!

FREE EVENT - Bring the whole family! October 31, 6 pm - 8 pm October 31, 6 pm - 8 pm Pumpkin Patch Sept. 30 - October 31 Hours vary

Bakery & Deli • Gift Shop • Handcrafted Cider • Barnyard Playground • Mini Train Ride • Full Breakfast & Lunch coversappleranch.com

19211 Cherokee Road, Tuolumne, CA 209-928-4689

dutchhollowfarms.com

New Entrance 2500 Santa Fe Road, Modesto 209-287-6010

Make your mark.

Some businesses are content to have no other online presence than a Facebook page, and never think of how that looks to customers. While Facebook is a wonderful complement to a company website, it is by no means a realistic replacement. And not everybody has a Facebook account anymore.

Let us help you build your new website. Visit us at 209multimedia.com/webdesign to get started.