Neighbors helping neighbors
About Community Food Bank
At Community Food Bank, we don’t just break the norm, we blow it up. Nationwide, food banks share a mix of groceries that’s 80 percent shelf stable and 20 percent fresh. Shelf stable means things like canned goods, dried pasta and dried beans. Here at the center of the fresh produce universe, our market basket is 80 percent fresh almost every week of the year.
It’s only through the generosity of our partner producers that Community Food Bank can meet the challenge of providing our customers with the freshest, healthiest food available. Why not drop by for a look yourself? You’ll find that most of what we are able to share is organic, and all of it is food that any of us would be happy feed our own families.
Specifically, your food bank
What is a food bank?
A food bank is a non-profit organization that collects and distributes food to people in their community who have difficulty purchasing enough food to avoid hunger and/or malnutrition. Food banks also offer food to local non-profit organizations whose mission is to help similar people in the community.
The food that Community Food Bank distributes comes from local grocery and retail stores, like Safeway, Nob Hill, Lucky, and Target, from local growers like Phil Foster, Coke Farm, Heirloom Organics, and Shingai Farms, and local community members just like you. Community Food Bank also partners with food banks in Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties, who collect and redistribute surplus produce from across the Salinas Valley and central coast. Community Food Bank distributes over 1,000,000 pounds of food each year, most of which would otherwise be thrown away.
Food banks are more than just food distribution centers. They are community leaders in helping people in their area struggling to make ends meet. From motivating city and county officials to protect programs to examining root causes of poverty, Community Food Bank creates tailored, responsive programs for clients, volunteers, donors, and non-profits. Many factors can go into why a person needs food assistance and the Community Food Bank is there to help.
From the wayback machine
History
In 1989, a compassionate and hardworking group of people, lead through the efforts of Novis Percival, a local visionary, started offering food to local people in need. In its first year, they served about 35 families. Growing quickly into an important resource in the community, the founding group formally incorporated the organization as “Community Pantry” in 1992.
Albert Einstein
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.