Community Resources: Food Assistance

During this Coronavirus pandemic, FREE food assistance is still going strong. There are many different food assistance programs such as food pantries, meals, and more, to name a few. Here is a list of programs to help you navigate all the programs and find what fits your situation.

A good place to start: The City of San Jose has created a food map of Santa Clara County including meal sites, food pantry sites, sites for children and sites for seniors. The San Jose Mercury wrote an article explaining the food map on April 3, 2020.

Silicon Valley Strong has a printable list of meal sites for Seniors 60+ and Children and Teens 18 and under. Silicon Valley Strong also has information available in seven other languages.

Second Harvest Food Bank provides a many food resources in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. Did you also know that they have a Produce Mobile that has stop locations to provide fresh produce? Here is a flyer in English and Spanish of their stop locations. Second Harvest Food Bank also has a Brown Bag Program to provide bi-monthly bags of food to low-income Seniors (65+) and Persons with disabilities (55+).

Sourcewise has the Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program where they provide vouchers to Seniors (60+) and American Indians (55+) to use at local Farmers' Markets to purchase fresh produce. Here is some information on the Meals on Wheels Program and application process. 

The Urban Village Farmers' Market Association has more information about using food assistance at the Farmers' Market.

Interested in CalFresh? Start here on the Santa Clara County Food Assistance overview page.

Interested in California's Food Assistance Program (CFAP)? Here is the page to get you started.

Interested in the Federal program called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)? Here is the page to get you started.

In these uncertain times, everyone should have access to fresh, nutritional food. Hopefully this helps you get what you need.

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