| FORM 990, PART III, LINE 4a, STATEMENT OF PROGRAM SERVICE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: |
High Need Continues with Hunger Paradox Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1979, realized significant progress in achieving its strategic goals during its 2016-2017 fiscal year. Also known as the "Food Bank or "Second Harvest," the organization continued to enhance its traditional food-banking operations while pursuing innovative solutions to address the Silicon Valley hunger paradox. Despite the enormous wealth in what is considered the epicenter of technology, Second Harvest continues to face a growing hunger problem due to this hunger paradox. The recent tech boom has created immense wealth for some, but it has also caused the cost of housing to soar. Rents in neighborhoods near Google, Facebook, and other tech giants have seen double-digit increases in just the last few years. But astronomical rents are not confined to these areas as every neighborhood in Silicon Valley has experienced steep increases in the cost of housing. From 2011 to 2016, the median apartment rent rose 45 percent while the median income increased only 14 percent. That leaves many local families without enough money to pay rent and put food on the table. Today, more kids, families, and seniors depend on Second Harvest than ever before. That's the new hunger paradox: as the economy grows, so does the number of people who need food. This continues to create challenges for Second Harvest. Many who work jobs critical to the local economy can no longer afford to live here. They are moving to less-expensive areas and commuting long hours, making them harder to reach with services. High rents are forcing families to crowd into cramped apartments and live in unconventional spaces like recreational vehicles, garages, and sheds, often with no access to cooking facilities. The lack of access to nutrient-rich foods is hurting those who can't afford them. The people Second Harvest serves have higher rates of malnutrition, diabetes, hypertension, and other diet-fueled ailments. The current political climate poses another challenge as local fears around immigration policy may impact who turns to Second Harvest for food, making it harder to predict future demand for services. In addition, funding for many of the federal nutrition programs that local families depend on are facing proposed budget cuts, which could force more people to seek food from Second Harvest. Expanding Second Harvest's Reach Second Harvest continued to enhance its operations to meet the rising need, enabling the Food Bank to increase the number of meals it provided by more than 1 million this fiscal year for a total of 55.5 million meals. The Food Bank served an average of 257,465 people each month, nearly 4,700 more than the previous fiscal year and more than ever before. During the fiscal year, Second Harvest began expansion efforts at its Curtner Center facility to increase storage, staging, and loading areas to support the expected 30 percent increase in shelf-stable, cold and frozen food pounds over the next five years and accommodate potential growth in office space. The Food Bank also continued to invest in mission-critical equipment and infrastructure for its distribution partners $218,508 this fiscal year to strengthen the local nutritional safety-net. Nearly 40 percent of those investments went to enhance school pantries. Second Harvest also remained one of the few food banks in the Feeding America network of 200 regional food banks to provide food to its distribution partners free of charge. During the fiscal year, the number of distribution sites operated by the Food Bank and its 300 partners increased by 5 percent to 905 sites. This included an impressive jump in school pantries. Schools are an ideal place to reach kids and families with services. In addition to providing food at these sites, Second Harvest offered nutrition education and connected families to other food-assistance programs like CalFresh (food stamps). The Food Bank added 21 new K-12 schools a 25 percent jump increasing the number of people served through the school pantry program by 30 percent. It grew the number of pantries at community colleges and universities by 67 percent, increasing the number of people served through the program by 115 percent. Second Harvest also added seven low-income housing complexes to its distribution sites, reaching an additional 1,000 people with services. Second Harvest was able to raise significant dollars to support these efforts and effectively manage the funds to make the most impact on local hunger. Charity Navigator, the nation's largest and most-used evaluator of charities, has ranked Second Harvest among the top 50 charities in the United States based on accountability, transparency, and financial health. The Food Bank's impressive donor base more than 46,100 donors made more than 91,300 gifts totaling nearly $37.9 million this fiscal year. The Food Bank was also able to leverage significant volunteer hours to help accomplish its mission. Volunteer hours totaled 338,291, up 9 percent over the previous fiscal year. Valued at nearly $7.1 million, that is equivalent to 162 full-time employees. Improving Community Health Second Harvest continued its groundbreaking work to ensure that kids get the nutrients they need to grow up strong and healthy, and to address the high rates of diabetes and other diet-fueled conditions among the adults it serves. During the fiscal year, the Food Bank began implementing its ambitious Healthy Food and Beverage Policy, a model for the rest of the country. Already providing more fresh produce than any other food bank in the nation, Second Harvest formalized its commitment to healthy food by adopting the policy. It sets three-year goals for increasing the amount of healthy foods Second Harvest provides like whole grains and lean protein items, and reducing the amount of unhealthy items like high-sugar foods and beverages. The Food Bank exceeded its goal of having protein and dairy make up at least 22 percent of the food mix, providing nearly 25 percent. Second Harvest sharpened its focus on nutrition education during the fiscal year. In addition to providing nutrition education to more than 30,000 clients, the Food Bank piloted higher-impact education methods, including 10 six-week workshops for families that use evidence-based curricula to teach them about nutrition, mindful eating, stress management, and healthy recipes. To expand its reach, Second Harvest bolstered its innovative Health Ambassador program, with 65 trained volunteer ambassadors who work out in the community to promote healthy eating. The Food Bank also opened its second Food Pharmacy at a local free clinic where low-income diabetes patients fill "prescriptions" for healthy food and receive nutrition education to help them eat healthier. Building a Hunger-Free Community While Second Harvest is making notable gains against local hunger, the reality is hunger in Silicon Valley is just too big to solve with traditional food-banking alone. During the fiscal year, the Food Bank conducted a comprehensive market research study to determine the size and scope of local hunger. The data revealed that an estimated 700,000 Silicon Valley residents 1 in 4 are food insecure, meaning they are at risk of hunger. The Food Bank would need to triple in size to meet this need. The most effective and efficient way to provide more food to our hungry neighbors is to continue to grow Second Harvest's capacity to distribute food while intensifying efforts to connect more people to food by leveraging public programs and collaborating with other organizations. For example, the Food Bank launched a school breakfast initiative during the fiscal year to encourage more schools to provide federally funded school breakfasts so that kids have the nutritious food they need to power them through the school day. Second Harvest worked with 28 schools in high-need areas, providing meal carts and other support. Thanks to this effort, more than 311,000 additional meals were provided to local kids. Second Harvest will continue to lead efforts to build a hunger-free community by focusing on its core strengths while transforming the way people access food. Although this is an ambitious effort, the Food Bank is well-positioned to overcome some of the challenges it faces with the hunger paradox and accomplish its mission. Second Harvest is more committed than ever before to working harder and smarter to end hunger in Silicon Valley. 202,186 people were served. |
| FORM 990, PART III, LINE 4b, STATEMENT OF PROGRAM SERVICE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: |
Food Bank Direct-Service Programs: - Brown Bag provides food on a weekly basis to low-income seniors. - Family Harvest provides monthly food assistance to families with dependent children. - Produce Mobile operates like a mobile farmer's market, providing fresh fruits and vegetables to communities for immediate distribution to low-income residents. - Kids NOW (Nutrition on Weekends) provides weekly bags of healthy, kid-friendly food for children to take home every Friday. - Partners in Need (PIN) provides weekly food assistance to low-income Food Bank Volunteers. 55,279 people were served. |
| FORM 990, PART III, LINE 4c, STATEMENT OF PROGRAM SERVICE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: |
Second Harvest Services: - Second Harvest Food Bank serves an important role in raising a voice for the needs of the Food Bank's clients. This is done by educating policy makers and stakeholders about the importance of public-private partnerships in addressing hunger and health related issues. Second Harvest works with a range of local, state and national organizations to address client barriers and help increase the effectiveness of food nutrition programs. - Food Connection Hotline connects callers to multilingual operators who refer them to local food assistance programs. - Community Nutrition provides nutrition, food safety and food handling training and support materials for clients and partner agencies. Multi-lingual nutritionists use innovative teaching tools to educate clients to make the healthiest food choices. - CalFresh Outreach helps families and individuals in need apply for this locally underutilized federal government food-assistance program (also known as SNAP or food stamps), which provides a debit card to low-income households to purchase food. Working in partnership with Santa Clara and San Mateo county governments and scores of other community partners, Second Harvest's CalFresh Outreach Specialists conduct outreach in community locations such as libraries, medical clinics, schools, food distribution partner organizations and nonprofits. 71,863 people were served. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 11b |
THE PROCESS THE ORGANIZATION USES TO REVIEW 990: The CFO reviews the draft Form 990 and addresses any follow up questions with the auditors. Then the Form 990 is submitted to the Board for their input. Any identified issues are resolved and the Form 990 is finalized. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 12c |
Monitoring and enforcing compliance with the conflict of interest policy: Conflict of Interest statements are completed and signed annually by employees and Board Members (typically in the February timeframe). Statements are reviewed by HR prior to inclusion in personnel folders for employees and for Board members the statements are filed with other Board documents. If potential conflicts are listed, they are recorded and communicated to the CEO. Currently there are no conflicts or potential conflicts listed on any statements, so nothing has been recorded or communicated to the CEO. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 15 |
In order to review and approve the recommended salary increases for members of the Leadership Team and the CEO, the Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors reviewed compiled market data provided by various survey sources for each position that outlined comparable positions in non profit organizations within the local and broader national area. In addition, the Committee reviewed the compensation of each individual based on market data, input on performance and achievements, and considered the prior year adjustments. Specific to the CEO, the Committee reviewed local market data and specific peer data on CEO positions in large urban centers that actively participated with Feeding America. Based on the review and consideration of market data and performance information for each leadership position, the Committee fully supported all base salary and bonus recommendations, and signed appropriate documentation to effectuate compensation change. This is an annual process. The process was last completed in August of 2016. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Section C, line 19 |
Description of how the organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public: The governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are posted on the organizations website and also available upon request. |
Attach to Form 990 or 990-EZ.