Editorial Bay Area nonprofits need help meeting coronavirus challenge
Bay Area nonprofits work every day to care for the sick, help the homeless and put food on the table for the needy. They educate our children and provide essential programs for families and the elderly.
They work to improve the lives of the mentally ill and those with drug and alcohol problems. They provide the arts and cultural programs that enrich our communities. And they preserve open space and fight to preserve our environment.
Now, many of them face threats to their survival because of impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bay Area is home to more than 15,000 nonprofits, many of which serve our most vulnerable residents, and many of which were already in crisis mode as they faced massive uncertainty over their funding and volunteer staffing prospects. Monday’s shelter-in-place order only adds to that uncertainty — at a time when we need those nonprofits most.
It’s essential that individuals, businesses and government agencies step up and do what they can to support nonprofits through funding, donations and crafting innovative ways to support their staffing.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, her fiance and other tech leaders are providing examples of the type of leadership and generosity needed to meet the challenge. They have launched a $5.5 million COVID-19 Fund for Feeding Families, which is designed to help finance a temporary workforce to keep food banks running.
During this coronavirus crisis, food banks are some of the most critical, and most threatened, nonprofits. They serve about 2 million Californians every year, and they are seeing precipitous drops in volunteers across the state.
In the Bay Area, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley Food Bank typically has about 100 volunteers at its San Jose warehouse each day to pack food in boxes that are distributed to hundreds of distribution sites in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Second Harvest CEO Leslie Bacho said Tuesday that the organization has 50% fewer volunteers than normal and faces the additional challenge of revamping its food-handling process to deliver food in the safest and most efficient method possible.
The Alameda County Community Food Bank is also in urgent need of more volunteers. Last week just four people showed up for a morning shift that is usually staffed by 40 to 50 volunteers. Contra Costa, San Francisco and Santa Cruz counties are reporting similar challenges at their food banks.
Food banks aren’t the only nonprofit organizations in need of support. Nonprofits touch, and improve, the lives of thousands of Bay Area residents every day. It’s imperative that we work collectively to support their work as we tackle the coronavirus challenge.
The staff at Second Harvest Food Bank is having to alter the way it packs produce for the people it serves.