Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

What Second Harvest of Silicon Valley does

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit food bank founded in the 1970s and headquartered in San Jose, California. It operates as the leading food rescue and redistribution organization in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, distributing enough food for 93 million-plus meals annually and serving approximately 500,000 people per month — roughly one in six residents of its service area. Core operations are built around a network of 900+ partner agency distribution sites (pantries, shelters, schools, community centers, and affordable housing complexes), direct walk-up distributions, a multilingual Food Connection hotline (1-800-984-3663, staffed in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Tagalog), CalFresh/SNAP application assistance, a summer/SUN Bucks meals program for children at 70+ sites, and a Nutrition Center providing education and recipes.

The underlying technology is a conventional food rescue and distribution logistics system that connects surplus food from grocers, manufacturers, and farms (via channels including the California Association of Food Banks Farm to Family program and the Starbucks/Feeding America Foodshare program) to downstream partner agencies and end clients; there are no AI/ML systems described in the available data. Three physical facilities (Curtner Center and Cypress Center in San Jose, Bing Center in San Carlos) support operations, volunteer mobilization, and donation processing, with a new San Jose facility breaking ground in September 2025 to accommodate record demand.

Revenue flows from three streams: financial donations from individuals and corporations (the 2023 holiday campaign alone targeted $30 million), in-kind food donations from retailers and farms, and government grants/contracts tied to federal nutrition programs such as SNAP/CalFresh. The organization operates free of charge to clients, is governed by an independent Board of Directors (Board Chair Maria Poveromo, formerly SVP and CCO at Cisco), is led by CEO Leslie Bacho, and is a member of the Feeding America network and the Bay Area Food Banks coalition. It pursues strategic partnerships with healthcare systems (notably a Stanford Medicine collaboration under a $1.1 billion community health investment) and educational institutions (SJSU Spartan Pantry, ServiceNow student hunger initiative) to embed food security within broader social-determinants-of-health and student-support ecosystems.

Name

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

Legal name

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

Website

https://shfb.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1970

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is a 501(c)(3) food bank serving Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, distributing 93 million-plus meals annually to roughly 500,000 people per month via 900+ partner agencies, with adjacent CalFresh enrollment, summer meals, nutrition education, and a multilingual Food Connection hotline.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Food Bank and Hunger Relief Services

NAICS

Community Food Services (62421), Community Food Services (624210)

akta.pro primary industry

Food Assistance & Food Banks (BPAGAEAA)

Keywords

• Food bank services
• Hunger relief
• Food distribution
• CalFresh enrollment
• Nutrition education

Headquarters

HQ city

San Jose

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Financial Donations: Individual and corporate donations from donors who contribute funds to support food acquisition and distribution operations.
2. Food Donations: Rescued surplus food from grocers, manufacturers, and farms that is redistributed to those in need.
3. Government Programs: CalFresh enrollment assistance and participation in federal nutrition programs like SNAP.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley rescues surplus food from grocers, manufacturers, and farms and redistributes it free of charge to individuals and families facing food insecurity across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. It also provides CalFresh/SNAP application assistance, summer meals for children (including the SUN Bucks program), nutrition education, and operates a multilingual Food Connection hotline that connects callers to local food resources.

Product overview

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley operates as a food bank providing a unified set of food assistance programs rather than a technology platform. The core offering consists of food distribution through a network of 900+ partner sites, CalFresh application assistance, meals for children (including the SUN Bucks summer program), and a multilingual Food Connection Hotline. Supporting these services are a Nutrition Center offering education and recipes, and virtual food drive tools for fundraising. The organization serves Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in California.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Food Distribution Program Free groceries and prepared meals distributed through more than 900 partner agency sites across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties for families, seniors, students, and other individuals experiencing food insecurity.
• CalFresh Application Assistance Helps low-income individuals and families apply for CalFresh (SNAP/EBT) benefits, providing expert guidance through the application process and helping submit documents to county offices.
• Meals for Kids / SUN Bucks Free summer meal program providing nutritious meals to children 18 and younger at sites throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo counties; SUN Bucks provides funds to purchase food during summer months.
• Nutrition Center Provides nutrition education resources, recipes, cooking tips, and workshops to help clients prepare nourishing meals and develop healthy eating habits.
• Food Connection Hotline Phone hotline (1-800-984-3663) staffed by multilingual staff who connect callers to nearby free food sources and assist with CalFresh applications. Staff speak English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Tagalog.
• Virtual Food Drive Online fundraising tool allowing supporters to create and share virtual food drives with friends and family to collect donations for the food bank.
• Partner Agency Network Network of more than 900 partner agencies, including pantries, shelters, schools, and community organizations, that distribute food to individuals and families in need.

Quantifiable outcome

• Serves 500,000 people monthly with millions of pounds of food distributed
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and notable.

• Stanford MedicinecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 May 2025Stanford Health Care, Stanford Medicine Children's Health, and Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley invested a combined $1.1 billion in community health programs during fiscal year ending August 2024. The investments supported nonprofit partners including Second Harvest, which provided food to approximately 139,000 individuals. This partnership addresses social determinants of health including food security in the Bay Area.
• LifeSTEPS and CityTeammajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 August 2019Second Harvest partnered with LifeSTEPS and CityTeam to launch free food distributions at affordable housing complexes in San Jose, bringing food resources directly to housing communities.
• ServiceNowmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 April 2019ServiceNow partnered with Second Harvest to address student hunger at colleges in Santa Clara County, supporting food insecurity initiatives for college students.
• StarbucksmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 June 2018Second Harvest partnered with Starbucks and Feeding America to launch the Foodshare program, which helps rescue and redistribute surplus food from Starbucks locations.
• Samaritan HousenotableStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 January 2016Samaritan House and Second Harvest opened the first known Food Pharmacy in California, providing a unique model for addressing food insecurity through healthcare partnerships.
• Feeding AmericacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSecond Harvest is a member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 member food banks. This affiliation provides access to resources, best practices, and collaborative programs across the food bank network.
• Bay Area Food BankscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSecond Harvest is part of Bay Area Food Banks, a network of 10 San Francisco Bay Area food banks working together to address hunger in the region.
• California Association of Food Banks - Farm to Family ProgramcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSecond Harvest receives food from the Farm to Family program, operated by the California Association of Food Banks, which helps provide food and fight climate change by connecting surplus produce from farms to food banks.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• San Francisco-Marin Food Banks: Direct peer food bank serving adjacent Bay Area counties (San Francisco and Marin) through a comparable partner-agency distribution and CalFresh enrollment model. Highly comparable because it shares the same Bay Area Food Bank network and faces identical cost-of-living dynamics driving client demand.
• Alameda County Community Food Bank: Direct peer food bank serving Alameda County within the same Bay Area Food Bank network. Comparable because it operates a partner-agency distribution model at similar scale, targets low-income households in a high-cost Bay Area region, and participates in shared Feeding America procurement pipelines.

Peers

• Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano:

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCzR5x4Zkq0E
• Xx.com/2ndharvest
• Facebookfacebook.com/2ndharvest
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/second-harvest-food-bank

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles24 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Second Harvest of Silicon Valley