“We have seen just an unprecedented increase in demand,” says Leslie Bacho, CEO of the Second Harvest food bank. “I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like it."
For years, the organization has made bulk food available to schools and institutions to distribute to people in need. Now, the list of people who need the food bank’s services has expanded enormously.
“Within the span of just a few days, it went from a full calendar of work to nothing at all,” says Tim, a musician whose income quickly dried up due to the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s invaluable to know that we have these resources, that we’re not going to be going hungry.”
Just last month before shelter in place orders went into effect, Second Harvest packed up a couple thousand boxes each day for its clients.
“Now we are packing more than 15,000 thousand boxes every day to go out to the community," says Bacho. She expects the demand to continue to rise to at least 20,000 boxes each day says it will not go away even after the pandemic is under control. After people go back to work, Bacho estimates it will take additional time for people to catch up on overdue rent and bills, meaning cash for food will be short for some time.
The California National Guard sends 100 troops to the food bank each day to help pack all those boxes, and the San Jose real estate logistics company Prologis has leased her a large warehouse for free.
“To make people safe we are now boxing all that food at our facilities. So we’re creating a box of mixed produce for example. And then we’re trying to turn more of our sites into drive-throughs and open up new drive-through sites to reduce touches at the site," says Bacho.
Even with help from the National Guard, Second Harvest is looking for additional volunteers at its four facilities in San Jose and San Carlos.