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From the CEO:

I am very thankful for the warm welcome, which I have received from Food Bank staff, volunteers, board members, and our agency partners. I have spent my first several months as CEO listening to you and learning about the good work of the Food Bank and the wonderful community support it has enjoyed since 1974. Learning about what has made the Food Bank so successful is an important component to consider when planning our future.

In the coming months, my primary focus will be to build on this wonderful foundation and to continue to grow our services to provide food for people in need in our community as efficiently and effectively as we have in the past.

I, the Board of Directors, and the Food Bank staff appreciate all of the hard work and dedication of the people in our community. From the volunteers who donate their time sorting food and packing boxes at our warehouses to the people who staff our Brown Bag and Family Harvest distributions sites, we recognize that without their help, our organization would not operate as effectively as it does.

Thank you to all the organizations that ran food drives for us this holiday season. Of special note are the hundreds of boy scouts who collected food in our community and the Kiwanis club members who pitched in to assist NBC11’s John Farley with his annual holiday food drive. Their efforts were truly heartwarming to witness.

In addition, the magnificent support from our corporate donors, both in dollars and in volunteer hours, continues to be significant. The following companies donated at least 500,000 pounds (or dollar equivalent) this past year earning them the Brass Ring Award: Adobe Systems, Inc., Applied Materials, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Cypress Semiconductor, Inc., Network Appliance, and NVIDIA.

But, the spirit of giving does not have an age limit. This holiday season, I had the privilege of meeting two boys, Nihar Agrawal, 8, and Nishant  Agrawal, 9 years old, who raised almost $700 by asking their friends and family to forgo purchasing presents for their birthdays and to, instead, donate to Second Harvest  Food Bank. It is always refreshing to hear from children the importance of giving to those who are less fortunate. During my meeting and tour of the Food Bank with the boys, it made me realize why it is so important to be thankful for what each of us has.

Clearly the winter holiday season is a time for reflection and recognizing that many people are experiencing hard times and need our help. There is much more work for us to do to meet the needs of those who experience food insecurity in our community.

Although we are not so naïve as to believe that we can abolish hunger in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, we maintain that by operating efficiently and being farsighted, we can reduce the level of hunger in our community, and have a long-lasting impact on people’s lives.

Thanks for your support. With much friendship and great hope for the future.

Warm regards,

Chip Huggins
Chief Executive Officer

Click here to view Chip's bio