Celeste Merryman
Celeste Merryman

The Pantry Shelf – Newsletter November 2024

The Pantry Shelf is the San Lorenzo Family Help Center newsletter, connecting and creating a community of people on a mission to defeat hunger in Alameda County. Donate today to automatically subscribe to our newsletter.

Check out what’s on the shelves in November 2024.

Top Shelf - Our Programs​

Our families are top shelf! After moving to our new location at 20960 Corsair Blvd, we’ve been growing and defeating hunger in more and more households in the unincorporated areas in and surrounding San Lorenzo, CA.

In-Store Program

Since January 2024, we’ve supported 1458 unique families through our store-like shopping pantry at Corsair. The chart at the right shows the number of families per month who have received assistance, 322 to 859 a 167% increase.

Chart of food assistant from January 2024 to Oct 2024.

Mobile Pantry Program

We will be out at the San Lorenzo Emanuelu Samoan Free Methodist Church on December 7th. Partnering with them we distribute nutritious produce to approximately 100 clients each Saturday we are there. 

Update on Our Farmer's Market Truck

Photo of a truck with a side door open exposing produce.

Honk, honk and thank you to those that donated so far to our truck build and supporting our expansion of our Mobile Pantry Program.  So far, we’ve received $7,450 from individual donors.

While our donor matching has ended, your continued financial support is important as we work to get the Farmer’s Market Truck built. Make your donations here.

Middle Shelf - Partners & Volunteers

Food Recovery Partners

In January 2024, SB 1383 expanded the “reduce waste” requirement to restaurants, schools, and hospitals with the expectation they donate excess food to distribution centers.  In October we welcomed our newest Food Recovery Partner Fusian Delight restaurant, located in the Greenhouse Shopping Center on Lewelling in San Leandro, CA. This is our first donor restaurant and supports our efforts to provide cultural foods to our diverse client community.

Volunteer Spotlight - GLIFY

This month we focus our light on our youth volunteers from Global Leadership Initiatives for Youth (GLIFY). GLIFY is a student-driven non profit organization based in the San Francisco East Bay Area and currently has 470+ members (middle schoolers and high schoolers) around the East Bay with over 40+ projects including food banks, crayon sorting, and other enrichment classes.

Photo of the GLIFY volunteers November 2024.

GLIFY has supported the San Lorenzo Family Help Center since 2020. The first event was the Thanksgiving special event in 2020. GLIFY was referred to The Pantry by Charles Beyer from Alameda County Community Food Bank. Since then they  volunteer regularly, helping those in need and learning leadership skills along the way. The group’s Saturday participation at The Pantry, is co-lead by Joshua Wu and Leann Chen.

Visit the GLIFY website to learn more about this amazing youth leadership group.

Stocking Our Shelves

Turkey Donations for Thanksgiving

 

We received 131 turkeys this year from Penumbra Inc of Alameda, CA. This is the 3rd year they have donated.

The warmth people feel when receiving a turkey warms the heart and fills stomachs this season.

A volunteer hands a client a turkey.

Giving Tuesday & San Lorenzo Family Help Center

As we approach the holiday season, the San Lorenzo Family Help Center is preparing to support our community with food on their tables. One way to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of our community is through your donations for Giving Tuesday. 

While the formal Giving Tuesday day is December 3rd, we hope you consider donating throughout the year and help us defeat hunger in Alameda County. Check out and share our Giving Tuesday donation page.

Donating Proceeds & Food to The Pantry

There are many ways to support the work we do at the San Lorenzo Family Help Center (SLFHC). November is a time where many people feel the gift of giving time and or donating food. When donating food please think about the condition of the packaging and the dating on the items donated and only donate foods that you would eat yourself.

Local Organizations Run Food Drives for The Pantry

We recently received food donations from:

  • The San Lorenzo Little League held a food drive in support of The Pantry.
  • The Girl Scouts troop 2612 and the Boy Scouts troop 612 recently made food donations, something they’ve been doing since at least 2020.

Calvary Lutheran Church Donates Proceeds to The Pantry

Gratitude and gratefulness goes to the Calvary Lutheran Church for donating all the proceeds from their upcoming Community Concert on November 30th, at 7 PM to The Pantry. If you are interested in attending in person, the address is 17200 Vía Magdalena, San Lorenzo, CA.

Please Donate Today and Defeat Hunger in Alameda County

We need your help to defeat hunger in the unincorporated area in and around San Lorenzo in Alameda County, CA. We cannot do it without you.

The San Lorenzo Family Help Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3). When you make your donation, we will provide the Tax ID.

We are rolling out new donor levels – Pantry Style. 

  • Platter Donors – $5,000 +
  • Dinner Plate Donors – $2,000 to $4,999
  • Salad Plate Donors – $1,000 to $1,999
  • Dessert Plate Donors – $500 – $999
  • Hors d’oeuvres Plate Donors – $100 – $499

Giving Tuesday & The San Lorenzo Help Center

'Tis the Season for Giving Tuesday!

The Holiday Season is upon us!  We are working hard to ensure our community members (clients and volunteers) have food on their tables this season.

Consider giving this season and spread joy and warmth on or around Giving Tuesday (Dec 3rd). Your financial donations support our mission and efforts to defeat hunger in Alameda County. Click here to learn more about what Giving Tuesday is all about.

The San Lorenzo Help Center - 40 Years and Counting

The San Lorenzo Family Help Center was founded in the late 1970’s as the San Lorenzo Ecumenical Food Pantry, serving approximately 10-20 families per week. Fast forward a few decades and we are now operating from our location in the Corsair Business Center in Hayward. We serve clients by appointment and at mobile pantry sites, and in October 2024 helped meet the nutritional needs of more than 850 households.

Our Mission Statement is:
“To support families in the wider San Lorenzo area by coordinating and distributing nutritious emergency food and targeted resources in partnership with volunteers, organizations, and our community.”

Our Volunteers are Our Heros

Without our dedicated volunteers, the San Lorenzo Family Help Center would not be able to operate the pantry for the benefit of our community. As you can see, our volunteers are dedicated to serving our community, have having fun at the same time!

What is Giving Tuesday?

Launched in 2012, Giving Tuesday is a global generosity movement, creating a day that encourages people to do good. You can find more information at their website: https://www.givingtuesday.org/. This year, Giving Tuesday will be held on December 3.

Posted in News  • 

The Pantry Shelf – Newsletter October 2024

The Pantry Shelf is the San Lorenzo Family Help Center newsletter, connecting and creating a community of people on a mission to defeat hunger in Alameda County. Donate today to automatically subscribe to our newsletter.

Check out what’s on the shelves in October.

Top Shelf - Our Programs

Our families are top shelf! After moving to our new location at 20960 Corsair Blvd, we’ve been growing and defeating hunger in more and more households in the unincorporated areas in and surrounding San Lorenzo, CA.

In-Store Program

Since January 2024, we’ve supported 1165 unique families through our store-like shopping pantry at Corsair. The chart at the right shows the number of families per month who have received assistance, 322 to 723 a 124.5% in growth.

Chart showing the number of family receiving food assistance by month from 322 in January to 723 in August 2024.

Mobile Pantry Program

Logo of the San Lorenzo Emanuelu Samoan Free Methodist Church.

What is a mobile pantry? We drive our van full of fresh produce and dry goods to locations where people need nutritious food the most in the underserved locations within the Ashland, Cherryland, Hayward Acres and San Lorenzo communities.

So far this year we’ve driven our mobile pantry to the San Lorenzo Emanuelu Samoan Free Methodist Church partnering with them to distribute nutritious produce to approximately 100 clients on five Saturdays.

We are looking for mobile pantry partners and locations

If you are interested in a partnership and hosting us and our mobile pantry program, please email at slzfoodbank@gmail.com.

We are expanding our Mobile Pantry Program and need dough

It has been a dream of ours to have a farmer’s market truck specifically designed to support our mobile pantry work. The truck design includes features like display shelving which helps reduce the lifting of hundreds of pounds of produce by our volunteers, built-in refrigeration enabling the storage of temperature sensitive foods, as well as awnings that provide coverings to our clients.

Photo of a truck with a side door open exposing produce.

We are excited to share that we’ve received a $205,000 Alameda County Unincorporated Area Community Development Block Grant. This grant is foundational to the expansion of our mobile food pantry program and the purchase of a new farmer’s market truck.

We have a $30,000 match that ends Oct 31st. Give today! The match may end, but the need for food for families will go on.

But the grant is not enough to build the farmer’s market truck and get it on the streets in the community. We are still needing $60,000 to complete the purchase.

Click here to DOUBLE donation

Middle Shelf - Partners & Volunteers

Food Recovery Partners

In October 2024, we added our 15th food recovery partner. Our partnerships with grocery stores, food distributors, and farmer’s markets provide us with a estimated 35,000 pounds per month of culturally diverse foods.

This year, we are on track to reach half a million pounds. Working together we are defeating hunger in Alameda County. 

Welcome to our new food recovery partner Sprouts in Hayward, CA.

Volunteers

Our good work is powered by our amazing volunteers, who do so much in the pantry and outside of it. 

Food-Related Roles

  • Receiving and sorting donations
  • Organizing and putting food on shelves or tables for distribution
  • Engage families in food selection

Non-Food Roles

  • Client check in and appointments
  • Photographer
  • Fundraising
  • Volunteer coordinator

If you would like to volunteer, please email:   slzfoodbank@gmail.com

Volunteer Spotlight

Photo of Janet Linh.

Our Volunteer Spotlight shines on Janet Linh, a volunteer for the past 2 years. Read what Janet has to say in her own words.

I’ve been a volunteer at San Lorenzo Family Help Center for almost two years. This rewarding experience has brought me great pride and enjoyment. I get to meet many new people and have made several friends. But most importantly, I get to serve and give back to the community and to do my part to take care of it the way it took care of me and my family when we first immigrated from Vietnam.

I will always remember the kindness and generosity shown to us by our local church and community, who made us feel welcomed and helped get us settled in with furnishings for our house and clothes and food for my whole family. I was just a young child then but I still remember how grateful I felt that total strangers cared about our well-being!

I’m inspired to continue my volunteer work and to motivate others to give back so we can make our world a better, kinder place for everyone. I especially want to instill in my young daughter the sense of volunteerism and the joy and gratification it brings.

Bottom Shelf

Photo of the front of the walk-in refrigerator at the San Lorenzo Family Help Center.

Brrr…it’s cold inside our new walk-in refrigerator. Thanks to the recent $30,000 grant from Alameda County Source & Recycling Board through Stopwaste.org, we were able to purchase a large walk-in refrigerator. With additional funding for the installation,  the walk-in is now chilling produce and foods in our warehouse. Thank you to Pelco Sales and Services, and Cold Storage Manufacturing for the installation and Moonlight Electric for connecting the electricity.

Stocking Our Shelves

We are only able to defeat hunger with your help. A $100 donation feeds 4 families for a week Donate Now!  Your donations, automatically subscribes you to our newsletter.

There are many ways to support the work we do at the San Lorenzo Family Help Center (SLFHC). In addition to one-time or monthly donations please consider:

  • Hosting a fundraiser on our behalf – create an event and invite friends and neighbors, then donate the funds to SLFHC.
  • Use your company giving platform and matching program – check out to see if your company has giving program.
  • Leave a legacy and add us to your estate plan – When you include the San Lorenzo Family Help Center in your estate plan, your generosity ensures an impact well into the future.

Rolling Out Our New Donor Levels

We need your help to defeat hunger in the unincorporated area in and around San Lorenzo in Alameda County, CA. We cannot do it without you.

We are rolling out new donor levels – Pantry Style. Donate today, grab a plate, and help stock our shelves.

  • Platter Donors – $5,000 +
  • Dinner Plate Donors – $2,000 to $4,999
  • Salad Plate Donors – $1,000 to $1,999
  • Dessert Plate Donors – $500 – $999
  • Hors d’oeuvres Plate Donors – $100 – $499

The San Lorenzo Family Help Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3). When you make your donation, we will provide the Tax ID.

Contact information

Janelle Morimoto, Executive Director

Email: slzfoodbank@gmail.com

Change in seasons brings changes to shopping days and hours at the San Lorenzo Family Help Center

As we move into fall we are making two key changes to our client program: reducing from two shopping days per client family down to one, and decreasing the number of Wednesdays we are open per month.

One Shopping Day Per Month

Starting October 1, 2024, the San Lorenzo Family Help Center (SLFHC) will move to providing one shopping day per month due to the reduced food supplied from the Alameda County Community Food Bank and an increase in the number of people and families receiving support from us. We are able to provide referrals to other local organizations providing food in the local Alameda County area, for those that need additional sources of food. 

During the summer months we provided clients two shopping days per month to cover additional food needed while schools were off and children were home for the summer. Now that school is back in session and school food programs are up and running, we will be reducing our client shopping down to one day per month.

Our Fall & Winter Wednesday Schedules

  • October – open the 9th and 23rd
  • November – open the 6th and 20th
  • December – open the 4th and 18th
  • January 2025 – open the 8th and 22nd
Posted in News  • 

New Walk-in Refrigerator is Chilling in the San Lorenzo Family Help Center Pantry

Brrr…it’s cold inside thanks to a recent $30,000 grant we received from Alameda County Source & Recycling Board through Stopwaste.org to purchase a large walk-in refrigerator. With additional funding for installation the walk-in is now chilling produce and foods in our warehouse. Thank you to Pelco Sales and Services and Cold Storage Manufacturing for the installation and Moonlight Electric for connecting the electricity.

Defeating hunger in Alameda County takes a community of organizations and people funding and volunteering. Please consider donating to the San Lorenzo Family Help Center, in a small or big way, go to our San Lorenzo Family Help Center donation page.

Photo of inside a walk-in refrigeration with food boxes.

This large refrigeration unit increases our cold storage capacity and enables us to expand our Food Recovery Program. Other benefits include:

  • Replacement of inefficient refrigeration units, saving electricity and lowering our carbon footprint; and
  • Increase the volume of recovered produce, dairy and protein foods, enabling us to support more low and very low-income families with additional food resources; and
  • Enables us to scale our mobile pantry program reaching more families and individuals needing healthy and nutritious food who live in the unincorporated Alameda County areas of Cherryland, Ashland, Hayward Acres and San Lorenzo; and
  • Last but not least, improve our volunteer experience by reducing the manual loading of the wall refrigeration units.

Installation of the New Walk-in at the Pantry

Posted in News  • 

Seeking our First Development Officer – Volunteer Opportunity

The San Lorenzo Family Help Center is a non-profit funded by grants and donations. We provide nutritious food to low income areas of San Lorenzo, San Leandro, and parts of Hayward in Alameda County, California. We have served our community for 40+ years, and are holding a search for a Development Officer to help us expand current partnerships, identify large donors, in addition to growing our small and individual donors base. The anticipated growth will allow us to expand our food programs and serve more people in our community. You can learn more about us at https://www.slzhelp.org/  

We are looking for someone who is passionate about our mission to provide food to those in need and represent the San Lorenzo Family Help Center (aka the Pantry) in a volunteer capacity as our first Development Officer.

To apply please send an email with your resume to slzfoodbank@gmail.com, with “Development Officer role” in the subject line.

Area of Responsibilities

The Development Officer is responsible for delivering, overseeing, and/or coordinating activities that increase the financial funding and support of the Pantry. Activities that are top of mind for us right now are: 

STRATEGY

  • Ability to write = a high level strategic plan with outlined timeline of goals to achieve that our board can act on
  • Be able to prepare and submit proposals to solicit donations and grants 
  • Develop and carry out  fundraising activities to meet annual fundraising goals 
    • Develop and carry out  recognition and stewardship strategies

PEOPLE-FACING

  • Cultivate relationships with existing and potential donors
  • Participate in donor meetings, presentations, and events

General Qualifications

Here are some experience and skills we are looking for:

  • Has interest and experience in fundraising and development, preferred
  • Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Able to work independently and as part of a team
  • Proficient with technologies used to communicate and manage donor databases and campaigns
Posted in News  • 

USDA Summer EBT Program for Families

USDA Summer EBT Program Provides Families Support to Purchase Food

What is Summer EBT?

Nearly 30 million children participate in USDA’s school breakfast and lunch programs on an average school day. When school is out for the summer, kids lose access to these meals.

Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program (EBT) is a new, permanent USDA program that provides grocery benefits to low-income families with school-aged children during the summer months when schools are closed.
 

How does Summer EBT help families?

The program will provide families with $120 per eligible child through a pre-loaded card that families can use to buy groceries – a format that gives families freedom of choice and protects against stigma in the checkout line.

How do I sign up for Summer EBT?

Go to SummerEBT.org to check if you’re eligible and connect to your state site to sign up today.

Who is Eligible?

If you live in a state participating in Summer EBT and your child receives free or reduced meals in schools (through an application you submitted), then you are automatically enrolled in Summer EBT. 

Your child is eligible if your household participates in benefits like SNAP or TANF OR if your child attends a school that offers the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Program and your household income meets the guidelines.

You do not need to be a U.S. citizen to be eligible and participation will not affect you or your family’s immigration status. It will not affect your ability to remain in the United States, get or keep a Green Card / Permanent Legal Resident Status, or become a U.S. Citizen.

You do not need to provide a Social Security Number (SSN) or proof of citizenship when applying for Summer EBT. Your Summer EBT application is private and protected.

Flyer with children in the park eating and copy in English and Spanish.
Posted in News  • 

KEAR Radio Interview with Executive Director, Janelle Morimoto – Discuss what food insecurity looks like today

Carmen Shontz from the KEAR Family Radio show Community Bridge, interviewed our own Janelle Morimoto, Executive Director of the San Lorenzo Family Help Center.

Take a listen and learn more about what we do and how you can support us and your community. 

KEAR Family Radio Community Bridge with host Carmen Shontz.

00:00

Transcript of the radio interview between Executive Director Janelle Morimoto and Carmen Shontz, radio host

Janelle:
We’re seeing more seniors, which is concerning a lot of 80 -year -olds, 70 -year -olds, even 90 -year -olds coming to see us, young families, smaller families, and I think we’re really reaching out to every different graphic in every culture in the community now.

Carmen:
From Family Radio Community Bridge, I’m Carmen Shontz.
We wanted to make sure they were aware that we were there. That’s Janelle Morimoto, Executive Director of the San Lorenzo Family Help Center in Hayward, California. 

Janelle:
We set it up like a store, so they actually get to come in and food’s on shelves and there’s a limit per shelf, but they can pick from many different items. So for example, you wanted to pick from what kind of noodles you want.

There’s different Asian noodles, there’s spaghetti noodles, different shapes. You could pick a bag or two from that shelf, go on to the next shelf. A lot of our items come from our food recovery, which is about 75% of how we’re supporting the community, and that’s why we set this up as a store instead of a bagged or a boxed item because there’s just so much variety.

Carmen:
Has the face of those facing food insecurity changed from a few years ago? I started as the Executive Director on March 7th, 2020. A week later, everyone stayed home. What I’ve seen in the last four years is that at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw large families, a lot of people moving back in with households of 13 and 14, a lot of younger families, business working families, or trying to work families, and now we’re seeing more seniors, which is concerning a lot of 80 -year -olds, 70 -year -olds, even 90 -year -olds coming to see us, young families, smaller families, and I think we’re really reaching out to every demographic in every culture in the community now.

Janelle:
We wanted to make sure they were aware that we were there. How can we help? We appreciate the food donations. We want people to be sensitive to the fact that when they donate food, it needs to be something that they would still want to eat.
 
Sometimes people pull things off the shelves and then they send them to us, but they’re not something we can give out again. The food drives do help. We do need financial support. The new building we’ve moved into, we now pay rent on, and we think going forward that this is a really good investment in the people of our community, but we do need the community to assist us locally.

When you give everything to the county food bank, that money does not come back to us to help with support. They help us with food, but they don’t give us anything financial for paying for the refrigerators to be plugged in and keep your food safe or the gas to pick it up.

So financial help does help a lot. Our community is really good at responding with giving us things like paper bags. and diapers and different things that we’ll put out into the community and tell them, hey, we could use these items and they’ll go out and donate them.

So just being positive and recognizing that we are doing the best we can. And when we know that something isn’t working right, we’ll try and change it. Can you share a story of how the food bank has made a difference?
 
There are those people who share stories and there are the other people who really are buttoned up tight and some people are just, we’ll let you know that, you know, about the person who they’ve lost their job.

They didn’t know where to go. And when they come in and they see the food, you know, the variety in that it’s, it’s tailored to care for them. That kindness, that support, there’s tears. It’s not what we’re looking for.
We’re just trying to be helpful, but those stories really sometimes give us the strength to continue being a warrior for the rest of the community. I have volunteers that were families that were receiving from us.

So many of the stories of homelessness, of being an immigrant, of being in prison, or so incarceration, I’ve heard these stories. The support that we provide them just, it’s almost like family to them.
 
Carmen:
So there is kind of that light at the end of the tunnel filling. Our guest today has been Janelle Morimoto with the San Lorenzo Family Help Center in Hayward, California. To learn more, visit their website at slzhelp .org.
 
Your local food banks and food pantries need your help. Give them a call or drop them an email and donate food, organize a food drive, or make a donation. We can all do our part to make a difference in our communities.
 
Posted in News  •