SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—On Tuesday Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County (SCFB) announced that its annual Holiday Food & Fund Drive (HFFD) raised the equivalent of 5.5 million meals—more than 1 million beyond its original goal.
Prior to the pandemic HFFD co-chairs Megan Martinelli and Carlos Palacios challenged the community to match the prior year’s goal of 4.5 million meals.
But vastly greater food demand, triggered by the pandemic, required big changes to the food drive’s operations and distribution logistics. SCFB was immediately forced to become creative in how it got food to the community.
To help stop the spread of Covid-19, the 2020 HFFD went entirely virtual. Instead of barrels being set up throughout the county to donate food, the organization focused on raising funds through its website. At first it worried that the drive would fall short of it’s goal—but the community stepped up.
“Five and a half million meals sounds like a lot of food, and it is, but nearly one in three residents of Santa Cruz County are facing hunger during this pandemic,” said Willy Elliott-McCrea, Second Harvest’s CEO. “The crisis has increased the need, as people are out of work or in-between work. The high cost of living here continues to stretch the resources of our residents. People are forced to make hard choices between necessities like medicine, housing, and food.”
The healthy meals raised by schools, businesses, cities, neighborhood groups, and others in the annual drive will help over 80,000 county residents each month. The drive raises the money needed to provide food at no cost to Second Harvest’s 165 partner agencies and food and nutrition distribution programs.
“We cautiously set a high goal of 4.5 million meals and challenged the community to help more people in need, and, wow, did they come through,” Elliot-McCrea said. “We are amazed and humbled by the outpouring of support… especially during such a difficult time for so many.”
