Harvest Sacramento

The Food Assistance Program at Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services distributes a 5-day supply of groceries to over 15,000 individuals every month. As many volunteers who work in Food Assistance or the warehouse know, that's a lot of food! Many people ask "Where does all the food come from?"

Food distributed by SFBFS comes from many different sources. Food is donated by and purchased from grocery stores every morning, plus we also receive USDA commodities, food from donation drives and giving events, and organic produce donated from Soil Born Farms (a local urban agriculture education project, www.soilborn.org). Often individuals will bring fresh fruits and veggies from their own yards. Now a nascent non-profit, Harvest Sacramento, is working to help harvest underutilized fruits and veggies from backyards and orchards for local food assistance agencies like Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services.

We are so pleased to reap the abundance of California fruit! Over the past month and a half SFBFS Americorp VISTA employee Courtney, and driver Larry, along with two Americorp NCCC volunteers group and a host of Harvest Sacramento volunteers harvested over 3,000 pounds of pears and apples. This produce ends up on the tables of the many clients we serve through Food Assistance.

If you are interested in volunteering, donating your backyard produce, or learning more about Harvest Sacramento, check out their website: http://harvestsacramento.wordpress.com.