Category: News

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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
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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

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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
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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.
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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.
 
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