*This is a special feature from the City of San Jose, Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services 

This week, the City of San José announced an expansion of its food distribution efforts from December 22, 2020 through January 2, 2021.

More than 100,000 additional meals will be provided for vulnerable residents, seniors, children, and displaced individuals.

During a press conference on Monday, Mayor Sam Liccardo was joined by Second Harvest of Silicon Valley CEO Leslie Bacho, Dr. Mary Ann Dewan, Santa Clara County Superintendent, and Kyra Kazantzis, CEO of the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits to announce joint efforts to increase winter meal access during the holiday season.

“This is an enormous growth and service that reflects a tremendous growth of demand. That is the reality we're in right now certainly throughout our city and throughout our Valley, said Liccardo during a virtual press conference yesterday.

“And I'm just grateful we have incredible partners to help us together get through this.”

Mayor Sam Liccardo announces the expansion of Winter meal distribution with an additional 100,000 meals and a half-million dollar investment to support community partners actively distributing food. Photo taken on December 21, 2020. 

The push for increased winter meals comes at a time when COVID-19 cases are increasing in Santa Clara County while reflecting the key partnerships between local nonprofits, area school districts, and the City  to provide additional holiday meals for at-risk residents.

During the press conference, Liccardo stated the City would be investing an additional half-million dollars to both increase the amount of meals and support non-profit partners like Hunger at Home, Veggielution, and Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley. This will lead to an additional 100,000 meals available to our most vulnerable populations in the coming days.

Since the start of the pandemic, volunteers, agency and city team members have staffed  food distribution sites across San José to ensure food delivery and distribution efficiency. 

Together with community partners, the City is focused on feeding seniors, youth, those with medical conditions, unhoused community members, and residents in financial need.

“At one point we had 160 city employees that dropped whatever they were doing to help ensure we had effective delivery and distribution of food,” Liccardo shared.

“As we attempt to battle this hunger pandemic resulting from the COVID pandemic, people are pulling together. We're seeing incredible progress in battling this very serious issue.”

For more information on winter meal distribution locations and hours, visit the Winter Holidays Food Resource Information page at bit.ly/SJWinterMeals.

To find out how you can access food resources in your neighborhood, please 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".

#SiliconValleyStrong #SJCares #KeepSJHealthy