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We are a community supported food pantry and kitchen located in the primarily agricultural town of Watsonville, California. We feed, serve, and support the hungry people of our community, including working poor families, migrant farm workers, and elderly, disabled, and homeless individuals.
We hope that you will get to know us and want to become personally involved in our hunger relief efforts.
Donations are always greatly appreciated. The dollars we receive provide meals for our neighbors in need. There are many "hands-on"opportunities to help in our mission. Volunteers serve in many capacities in our kitchen and pantry programs, serving on our Board of Directors, participating on fund raising and event committees, and assisting with office work and in numerous other special projects.
Contact us for more information about how you can get involved. Every action and every contribution makes a difference in the fight against hunger in our community.
Our mission is to assist people in the Pajaro Valley with nutritious food, education and referrals in cooperation with other agencies. We provide a hot meal at mid-day Monday through Friday, year around. We are open every weekday to provide staples and perishable groceries to supplement the diets of individuals and families.
Last year, 2012*, was another busy year for Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes. The pantry program received 10,093 visits by 2,292 households consisting of 7,009 people of which 2,976 or 42% were children under 18 years old. Approximately 39% of these households (896), representing 2,529 people, including 1,088 children, visited the pantry for the first time in 2012. The number of pantry visits has nearly doubled since 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 14.9%.
Our hot lunch program served 25,876 meals to seniors, disabled, low income families and homeless individuals during 2012. This number reflects a 33% increase over the number of meals in 2007, a compound annual growth rate of about 7.4%.
We are the only pantry in the area that is open five days a week, ready to provide immediate assistance. In order to meet the demands arising from increasingly larger numbers of needy people, we have extended working hours of salaried staff and drawn on increased numbers of volunteer helpers. Our extended hours provide a special time to accommodate the large number of emergency referrals we receive from the Second Harvest Food Bank.
*All statistics are presented on a fiscal year basis (September 1 through August 31).
