Before the pandemic hit, food that flowed through the Second Harvest warehouses in Manteca were reaching 35,000 individuals a month in an eight-county region.

Those being helped ran the gamut from working families slammed by housing cost, struggling single parent households, the elderly on fixed income, families in crisis such as major medical bills and those without jobs.

Then COVID-19 hit last March.

“The need went up 200 percent,” said Chief Executive Officer Keenon Krick.

Food being shipped out of the Vanderbilt Circle distribution center in the Manteca Industrial Park to roughly 100 food pantries throughout the region went from 230,000 pounds a week to 400,000 pounds a week.

A lot of people, however, didn’t grasp the critical role regional role the food bank has been playing in helping those struggling with being able to secure food. That likely had to do with the organization’s name — the Second Harvest Food Bank of San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties.

The food bank has been serving as the distribution center for large quantities of donated food from firms as well as items bought through monetary donations for a number of years for six other counties as well — Merced, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Calaveras, Amador, and Alpine.

That led to the decision for a name change and a new logo to reflect the food bank’s regional mission.

The changes were revealed Friday. The new logo and name — Second Harvest of the Greater Valley — grace the cab doors of two of the food bank trucks so far.

The Manteca-based food bank is among 200 similar operations nationwide affiliated with Feeding America. The 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.

“Even though COVID is easing, the need isn’t,” Krick said.

The ranks of those needed help swelled from those that lost jobs during the lockdown. While things are starting to open up more, economists expect it will be a long time for many of the jobs that were lost to be restored.

Food bank started

emergency food boxes

It is why the food bank — that has never provided food directly to struggling families — instituted an emergency food bank program.

The food bank is providing emergency food boxes directly from its Volunteer Center next door at 704 E. Industrial Park Drive in Manteca. The pre-packaged resources are supplemental groceries and are not full meals. They are currently offering each household one emergency food box every two weeks. You need to apply for a box each time you require one. Contents may vary day to day as they provide what is available to  them the day the packages are prepared
To adhere to county health guidelines there are only 10 available pickups per hour starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 11 a.m. They are not able to offer deliveries at this time. However, you can have a friend or family member pickup your box for you. Emergency food boxes are labeled with the participant's name. 

Information on how to request an emergency food box is on their website at localfoodbank.org/emergency-food-bank.

Next fundraiser is

drive thru St. Patrick’s

dinner with beer option

Fundraising is critical to the effectiveness of Second Harvest. While the donations of large items of food stuff by producers, distributors, and retail stores is the backbone of how the nonprofit agency helps feed several hundred thousand people a year, 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.

The next fundraiser is set for Wednesday, March 17, in the form of a drive-thru St. Patrick’s Day meal with all of the traditional corned beef dinner fixings from 5 to 7 p.m. in the food bank’s parking lot.

Tickets must be bought for $25 in advance from the food bank’s website. It covers the meal by On the Scene Catering as well as desert from Nothing Bundt Cake. For an extra $15 you can get 12-ounce bottles of beer from the Black Orchard microbrewery.

If you want to help but don’t want a meal, there is an option to pay the $25 and a meal will be delivered to those in need through the Manteca Senior Center.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com