U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo talks to the media before lending a helping hand at a Second Harvest food distribution site in Mountain View on Saturday, Oct. 25. Photo by Clay Lambert.

By 9:30 a.m. on this the fourth Saturday of the month the line stretches from the back parking lot, along the side of St. Athanasius Church and peters out somewhere on Rengstorff Avenue. The food distribution begins in 30 minutes and hundreds of people have brought their carts, bicycles — even baby strollers — to help them take away the free groceries they will need to feed their families.

It’s a scene that has played out dozens of times, on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month since the early days of the pandemic. About 45 volunteers, many from Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County or Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, lend a hand to neighbors who come from surrounding apartments, via Mountain View’s shuttle and well beyond.

While the need is always great, officials say they expect it to get even worse in November. The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known in California as CalFresh, will effectively run out of funding next month unless appropriations are re-instated by a Congress that is stalled by the government shutdown. Shobana Gubbi, Second Harvest’s chief philanthropy officer, said another 168,000 Santa Clara and San Mateo county residents would lose their benefits unless $31 million is pumped into the system each month.

“We expect these lines to grow,” she said amid a light rain.

On Saturday, U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo donned an orange reflective vest and blue latex gloves to lend a hand and highlight the need for a resolution to the funding impasse.

More than 100 people were in line when food distribution began at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, at St. Athanasius Church. Photo by Clay Lambert.

“We’ve got a crisis created by two forces,” he said in the church parking lot.

First, the Congressional Budget Office reports that the budget bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in July cut about $186 billion out of SNAP in the next 10 years. The cuts were made to offset trillions in tax cuts in the years to come.

“We are seeing the effects of that,” Liccardo said. “And, of course, the government shutdown leaves SNAP in perilous condition despite the fact the administration has $5 billion sitting in reserves in the Department of Agriculture, reserves Congress intended to be used for emergencies like this.”

Efforts like Saturday’s food distribution depend on local volunteers. Mountain View resident Jill Rakestraw said she simply saw the need in her own neighborhood and turned out to help.

“When you see people who really need it, it means something,” she said, adding that she has bonded with other volunteers through the years. “It’s a great way to give back and we’ve become a little family.”

It falls to Rafael Morales, the program coordinator, to make sure the distribution runs smoothly. He hustles up and down the line and trains volunteers on the spot. Just before the food distribution began on Saturday he explained to volunteers that each person needing assistance had a color-coded card depending on whether they were picking up provisions for one, two or three families. Volunteers paid rapt attention and were ready for the work.

“Speak now or forever hold your peace,” Morales shouted with a smile.

The line of people in Mountain View is just one such queue in Silicon Valley. Second Harvest provides food for about 900 sites between Gilroy and Daly City. The organization feeds about 500,000 people a month — one in six residents of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties seeks food assistance, according to Shobana Gubbi, chief philanthropy officer for Second Harvest.

Despite the daunting numbers, she is optimistic that Silicon Valley can and will step up to feed its own.

“We scaled up for the pandemic,” she said on Saturday. “We can do this.”

Get involved

Need help? Call (800) 984-3663. You can also just show up at St. Athanasius Church, 160 N. Rengstorff Ave. between 10 a.m. and noon on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. No one is turned away as long as food remains.

Care to apply for CalFresh? You can do that on the Second Harvest website, shfb.org, or at benefitscal.com.

Want to volunteer? Go to shfb.org an look for the the volunteer tab.

Wish to donate? shfb.org includes a donation tab.

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