Salinas, CA – From January through March, produce donations in the Salinas Valley to the area nonprofit Ag Against Hunger decrease dramatically when most growing production moves to the desert for the winter. However, local tri-county area food banks still need access to fresh fruits and vegetables to help the 158,500 people in need who utilize their services. To help solve this problem, Ag Against Hunger’s Winter Program brings donated fresh vegetables to the Central Coast from growers in Yuma, AZ.
The Santa Cruz County Community Foundation awarded Ag Against Hunger at $10,000 grant to be used exclusively for the Winter Program to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County and the California Grey Bears, a food assistance program that helps local seniors. This $10,000 grant split equally among the organizations is expected to bring in approximately 190,000 pounds of nutritious produce to Santa Cruz county residents.
Since 1990, Ag Against Hunger has collected over 189 million pounds of fresh, nutritious surplus produce from over 50 tri-county grower-shippers and distributed it to food banks throughout the West Coast. The produce is distributed in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties first, where it feeds over 158,000 low-income people each month through local food banks working with over 240 agencies before being distributed to millions more in need. To learn more, visit www.agagainsthunger.org. Become a fan on Facebook.
Source: Ag Against Hunger