23 June May 2021: CEO Message - Leonard O. Hansen Ph.D June 23, 2021 By User General, In The News 0 Many tasks are organized and completed early each morning to set up for distribution at the Main Pantry and for moving product out of the Food Bank to our Partners. Food intake and distribution is robust. For instance, Jimmy received a call out of the blue that C&S Wholesale Grocers had several pallets of candy and grocery to donate; they noted the Second Harvest had not picked this shipment up. He stepped up smartly having Carl at C&S Grocery Warehouse at 6AM in morning, as agreed, and he returned with many items. Nimble and responsive work and it counts! Jimmy balances among many partners and needs; like when he has a meet-up in the early morning with the Gospel Center Rescue Mission. We help whenever and wherever we can. There is a Federal Food Cliff coming at the end of this month as the USDA is ending its Box Program that has run since last May. We moved up to 2200 boxes a week, which grew, over time, to 35 pounds, including milk, eggs, protein, grocery, and fresh produce. There is a much smaller TEFAP program that will still be available and we’ve planned out produce purchases with CAFB and others. There is much budget activity in Sacramento; we have written in support of activities by CAFB to support bills such as: $150M one-time for food bank capacity improvements (Asm. Daly) $110M one-time for COVID-19 emergency food (Sen. Laird & Asm. Wicks) 5-year extension of the healthy food donation tax credit (Sen. Eggman & Asm. Levine) $32M one-time climate and disaster resilience (Sen. Newman & Asm. Levine). There was a poignant contrast of atrophy and renewal around the EFB campus late one week this month; there was a large fire in the homeless encampment behind us in Mormon Slough. Thankfully no damage to our warehouse interior and only minor damage to exterior. Good news, Tina and the Master Gardeners are planting new trees behind the Nutrition Center and we were able to employ our NCCC crews to help! So grateful for a job done with combined efforts. May your weekend be joyful! Leonard Comments are closed.