October 7, 2022
Jenny Carloni
Housing Officer
Community Development Department
City of Sunnyvale
Dear Jenny,
We have recently learned that we have an outstanding CDBG loan that dates from 1992. The loan was used to help bu
ild our location at 750 Curtner Avenue,
San Jose. The principal amount was $25,000 and the amount due is now $47,569.86. We are writing in the hopes that the City of Sunnyvale would be able to authorize loan forgiveness on this loan.
Second Harvest is the hub of the charitable food system in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, and most organizations providing groceries to our community receive that food from Second Harvest at no cost. Second Harvest distributes food through nearly 400 partners at more than 900 locations, out of four warehouses and delivered by our fleet of 40 trucks.
Sunnyvale is a key part of our service area and one of our major partners there is Sunnyvale Community Services (SCS). We are SCS’s largest annual donor, providing up to 2M pounds of food annually that can total over $3M in value.
We are one of the very few food banks that do not charge a cent for the food we donate to local nonprofits.
While life has returned to close to normal for much of our community, lower- income households have a long path to recovery. In a recent Second Harvest survey, 60% of our clients had less than $250 in savings. The domino effect of the pandemic’s financial devastation and rising prices has made it much harder for families, seniors, and individuals across Silicon Valley to make ends meet.
Low-income households are particularly vulnerable to price increases because food and fuel are such a large percentage of their budgets. Food is one of the first things people cut back on when money is tight. As inflation soared and pandemic support programs ended, many turned to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley for help. We saw the biggest surge in need since the peak of the pandemic, jumping from serving an average of 400,000 people a month to an average of 450,000 per month. Today, Second Harvest serves 450,000 people per month (an 80% increase over the 250,000 people per month we served Attachment 2
pre-pandemic) and we do not expect a drop in need anytime soon. Last year, we provided 130 million pounds of food to the community, the equivalent of 108 million meals.
Second Harvest is struggling to continue to serve the community and meet the continued need. The City of Sunnyvale does not provide any direct support of these efforts so this loan forgiveness would be greatly appreciated in support of our mission and the food insecure people in Sunnyvale.
We greatly appreciate the City Council’s consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
Tracy Weatherby
VP, Strategy & Advocacy
Attachment 2