“Our community and partners knew something had to be done quickly and collaboratively to protect the most vulnerable among us: youth and seniors,” says Cynthia Bojorquez, the Assistant City Manager for the City of Santa Clara.    

Due to the impacts of COVID-19, many in our community have faced food insecurity during this time. However, our #SiliconValleyStrongHeroes have committed to fight these impacts and provide healthy and delicious meals to all.    

The “Spirit of Santa Clara” has been able to envision and execute a food distribution system that has served approximately 10,000 meals for youth and 1,100 meals for seniors weekly since March 26. A joint effort between the @CityofSantaClara and local partners such as @SCConventionCenter, Levy Premium Foods (the Convention Center’s Catering Company), @SFGreatAmerica, @SantaClaraUSD and other non-profit organizations, they have been able to provide an effective and safe way to connect our community with food resources.    

“It demonstrates a ‘Santa Clara can do’ attitude where everyone does their part. The distribution cuts across sectors with every partner contributing assets that are their strengths. It was local action at its best,” continues Bojorquez highlighting the power of the community coming together.    

During these changing times, the “Spirit of Santa Clara” had one goal in mind: to ensure those who are most impacted and vulnerable stay fed. They were able to pivot quickly and efficiently by finding a new food distribution location when the Santa Clara Convention Center was converted to a COVID-19 field medical site. The City contacted Great America, which allowed Levy Premium Foods to assemble and store meals in their refrigerated storage area each week until the end of June.  

The Santa Clara Unified School District also provided three refrigerated trucks, drivers and access to the school sites. City employees joined the efforts in their role as Disaster Service Workers and organized into four different distribution sites (Cabrillo, Don Callejon, Wilcox and the City’s Senior Center) to give out food every Thursday from 2-3:30 p.m. On Fridays, the Santa Clara Fire Firefighters distributed weekend meals to homebound seniors and residents at the John Burns Center and the senior center. When food was leftover, it was taken by City staff to St. Justin’s Food Pantry and Sunnyvale Community Services Agency to be distributed to the unhoused and others in need.   

Within the first couple of weeks, the Mission City Community Fund came on board to serve as a fiscal agent to receive financial donations to support the food programs; approximately $150,000 was raised. And now, with the cancellation of the 4th of July Fireworks program, Silicon Valley Power re-directed their fiscal sponsorship of the fireworks to fund the senior program. With these donations and financial support, the City of Santa Clara has been able to provide grab and go meals at food locations providing meals every day.   

Together, our community can fight the impacts of COVID-19 one day at a time. Our #SiliconValleyStrongHereos, the City of Santa Clara, has demonstrated that helping feed our community is just one of many ways we will continue to rise. For more information on food distribution or places to donate, please visit: siliconvalleystrong.org or missioncityfund.ejoinme.org/healthymeals.

For more information on how you can access and find food resources in your neighborhood, visit bit.ly/SCCFoodMap. You can also visit siliconvalleystrong.org, call 2-1-1, a 24-hour multilingual service or text your zip code to "898211".

#SiliconValleyHeroes #SiliconValleyStrong #SVEats