Greetings!

Welcome Friends & Supporters! 

Imagine yourself having to say these words:

 "We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more."  

"We just couldn't afford to buy food to prepare balanced meals."  

"We relied on only a few kinds of low-cost food to feed our children, because we were running out of money to buy food."

How frightening it is to be slipping into these realities that are summed up in the phrase, "food insecurity."  Recently the USDA released its Food Insecurity Data for 2011, determining how often people fell into such circumstances.  The frequency of such need determines whether they are food insecure or experiencing low or very low food security.  The numbers were consistent with what we have experienced in San Luis Obispo County with our data from Food Bank distribution records, quarterly reports from our agencies, and the Hunger Free Communities Survey conducted for the Food Bank by STRIDE of Cal Poly in 2011.

We imagine with trepidation what will happen if the state and federal governments cut human services even further than they have already.  While our county and city leaders have done their best and continue to keep charitable outreach at previous levels, the state has already cut back severely and the federal government through the Farm Bill is on the brink of slashing Food Stamp support (now called CalFresh in California) to those in need and reducing dramatically the amount of food provided to Food Banks such as ours to distribute to food insecure persons in oru county, over 40% of whom are children.  

Carl Hansen, Executive Director 

2011 need was the highest ever. 

1 in 6 reach out for help. 

400,000 incidents of service were reported in 2011. 

Every $1 donated provides $10 worth of food.

Did you know that 47% of what we distribute is fresh produce?