Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties

“THE PROCESS THE ORGANIZATION USES TO REVIEW 990: The CFO reviews the draft Form 990 and addresses any follow up questions with the auditors. Then the Form 990 is submitted to the Board for their input. Any identified issues are resolved and the Form 990 is finalized.”

“Monitoring and enforcing compliance with the conflict of interest policy: Conflict of Interest statements are completed and signed annually by employees and Board Members (typically in the February timeframe). Statements are reviewed by HR prior to inclusion in personnel folders for employees and for Board members the statements are filed with other Board documents. If potential conflicts are listed, they are recorded and communicated to the CEO. Currently there are no conflicts or potential conflicts listed on any statements, so nothing has been recorded or communicated to the CEO.”

“In order to review and approve the recommended salary increases for members of the Leadership Team and the CEO, the Executive Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors reviewed compiled market data provided by various survey sources for each position that outlined comparable positions in non profit organizations within the local and broader national area. In addition, the Committee reviewed the compensation of each individual based on market data, input on performance and achievements, and considered the prior year adjustments. Specific to the CEO, the Committee reviewed local market data and specific peer data on CEO positions in large urban centers that actively participated with Feeding America. Based on the review and consideration of market data and performance information for each leadership position, the Committee fully supported all base salary and bonus recommendations, and signed appropriate documentation to effectuate compensation change. This is an annual process. The process was last completed in August of 2016.”

“Description of how the organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public: The governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are posted on the organizations website and also available upon request.”

“A new hunger paradigm second harvest food bank of santa clara and san mateo counties, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1979, realized significant progress in achieving its strategic goals during its 2015-2016 fiscal year. Also known as the "food bank or "second harvest," the organization enhanced its traditional food banking operations and pursued innovative solutions to address a new hunger paradigm. Second harvest serves a region that is today the epicenter of california's silicon valley. The home to leading technology companies, like facebook, google and oracle, silicon valley faces a unique and growing hunger challenge. The silicon valley economy has generated immense prosperity for a select few. At the same time, the cost of living has soared. This duality has created a paradox, where over the past few years, economic growth ironically led to the food bank serving more, not fewer, clients. Those living in the shadow of the technology economy, who do not benefit from high paying tech jobs, find themselves increasingly food insecure. Many middle class families are only one crisis away from facing food scarcity. Rising medical costs, along with other living costs, increase the hunger vulnerability of the elderly. Escalating college expenses, including housing costs, increasingly put university students at risk. The profiles of those in need are changing in ways that create new challenges in terms of both reaching and serving them. The dynamism of the silicon valley economy generates unusually high population movement around transplants, immigrants and commuters who hold down jobs critical to the area's economy but often don't earn enough to be food secure. Soaring rent costs not only leave families with less money for meals but sometimes force them to live in a garage or other atypical arrangement. Without access to a kitchen, families often turn to a poor diet of fast-food specials to stretch their available food budgets. Along with facing greater risks around malnutrition, they also cannot make good use of unprepared foods. Enhancing traditional food banking responding to this new hunger paradigm, second harvest enhanced its existing operations. Investing in its infrastructure to support expanded services enabled the food bank to distribute over 54 million meals during the fiscal year to hungry people in the community. Over the past three years, second harvest has invested approximately $1.9 million - including $757,000 this year alone - in mission-critical equipment and facilities for many of its distribution partners, thereby strengthening the nutritional safety net for hundreds of thousands of local residents. During the fiscal year, the number of unique sites of the food bank and its 317 member nonprofit network increased by 26 percent to 858 sites, with particularly notable growth in family and children sites, school pantries, multi-service sites and soup kitchens. The food bank continued to develop an especially robust organizational structure well beyond its own facilities and employees, as well as those of partners, to also encompass extensive volunteer and donor networks. During the fiscal year, food bank volunteers contributed over 310,000 hours of time, valued at $6.6 million. To duplicate this amount of work would have necessitated almost 150 full-time employees. Instead, funds were able to go into providing more food. Second harvest's dynamic donor base made more than 93,000 gifts totaling over $34 million. As a result, the food bank provided enormous quantities of food to its partner agencies. It also remained one of the few in the feeding america national network of 200 regional food banks to do so free of charge to often cash-strapped local shelters, soup kitchens and pantries. Despite the outward appearance of prosperity in silicon valley, the food bank served an average of almost 253,000 people a month during the fiscal year. This marked an increase of approximately 9,000 from the prior perio”

“Food Bank Direct-Service Programs: - Brown Bag provides food on a weekly basis to low-income seniors. - Family Harvest provides monthly food assistance to families with dependent children. - Produce Mobile operates like a mobile farmer's market, providing fresh fruits and vegetables to communities for immediate distribution to low-income residents. - Kids NOW (Nutrition on Weekends) provides weekly bags of healthy, kid-friendly food for children to take home every Friday. - Partners in Need (PIN) provides weekly food assistance to low-income Food Bank Volunteers.”

“Second Harvest Services: - Second Harvest Food Bank serves an important role in raising a voice for the needs of the Food Bank's clients. This is done by educating policy makers and stakeholders about the importance of public-private partnerships in addressing hunger and health related issues. Second Harvest works with a range of local, state and national organizations to address client barriers and help increase the effectiveness of food nutrition programs. - Food Connection Hotline connects callers to multilingual operators who refer them to local food assistance programs. - Community Nutrition provides nutrition, food safety and food handling training and support materials for clients and partner agencies. Multi-lingual nutritionists use innovative teaching tools to educate clients to make the healthiest food choices. - CalFresh Outreach helps families and individuals in need apply for this locally underutilized federal government food-assistance program (also known as SNAP or food stamps), which provides a debit card to low-income households to purchase food. Working in partnership with Santa Clara and San Mateo county governments and scores of other community partners, Second Harvest's CalFresh Outreach Specialists conduct outreach in community locations such as libraries, medical clinics, schools, food distribution partner organizations and nonprofits.”