*This is a special feature from the City of San José, Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services 
“We believe in a collaborative effort to address food insecurity. It’s not an ‘either/or’ but a ‘yes,/and!’ approach. Some families need fresh produce and groceries while other individuals need prepared meals. We believe in serving folks the correct resources needed,” says James Lee, Director of Business Development for Revolution Foods (RF).

Revolution Foods has been around for approximately 15 years, originating in Oakland. Their mission is to provide healthy, nutritious, and delicious meals to children and families nationwide. RF strives to transform citywide wellness by making healthy food accessible to all.

They currently serve about 2 million meals per week since Covid in 23 states. In addition, they are the second largest inner-city employer with 15,000 employees. RF takes pride in knowing they are changing lives externally on the consumer end and internally with different jobs, pathways, and skill sets for their staff.

This week’s #SiliconValleyStrongHeroes is the team at Revolution Foods who provide needed delicious and nutritious meals to children and families in San José

According to Lee, since the start of the pandemic last April, RF has served approximately 3,000,000 meals a week. During this time, they have partnered and received support from many local organizations including: the City of San José, World Central Kitchen, the Red Cross, and the State of California.

Prior to the pandemic, RF’s main focus was to provide meals for those in K-12 education. When schools closed, they shifted to address community-wide food insecurity. RF shifted from 95% of their efforts providing meals for children to now, almost 40% of their provided meals being community based (adult and family meals).

They have also moved to emergency food support. In 2020, RF worked with the fire victims in California and still continue to work with them through 2021. In addition, they are helping to aid victims of Hurricane Ida in New Orleans.

Revolution Food workers packaging fresh produce.

Packaged meals from Revolution Foods.

Lee notes, “Food is a basic human need. Kids can’t learn if they’re hungry. Food has to be tasty and delicious, so kids want to eat it. Changing the system of how people access food is super exciting and changing the trajectory of lives at scale is super satisfying to me.”

Thank you to all the #SiliconValleyStrongHeroes at Revolution Foods and their community partners, who are providing long-term, sustainable solutions in bringing healthy, nutritious, and delicious meals to those who need food assistance in our community.

Visit, www.revolutionfoods.com, for more information on Revolution Foods and how you can get involved and make a difference in your community.

For more information on how you can access and find food resources in your neighborhood, visit bit.ly/SCCFoodMap.