The Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County has served the County for over a quarter century, ensuring that no one in our county need go without access to healthy food. Our ultimate goal over the next three to five years is to reduce hunger in San Luis Obispo County while building a healthier community. The focus of our work is on all low-income populations and communities, from working families to seniors and disabled individuals to children in school. We continually reassess the impact of our programs to best meet residents' needs. At the same time, the Food Bank Coalition has taken a leadership role in collaborative efforts to improve health while fighting hunger. Our Executive Director participates in several local coalitions and organizations whose efforts are aimed at reducing hunger and increasing self-sufficiency. Staff also work with groups whose goal is to improve healthy eating and access to healthy food, and the Food Bank is proud to be distributing 50% fresh fruits and vegetables at its sites throughout the county. Our Mission Statement, updated by the Board in January of 2013, reflects these efforts: “To work with a network of community partners to alleviate hunger in San Luis Obispo County and build a healthier community. " As a larger non-profit providing services in every community in the County and partnering with over 75 agencies to distribute food, we are uniquely positioned to spearhead collaboration around hunger reduction and improving health. We distribute over 6 million pounds of food annually through 75 direct distributions and through our agency partners for their pantries and distributions. Approximately 45,000 low-income people access Food Bank Coalition resources each year, one in six county residents.

1) We meet short-term hunger needs by providing healthy food in distributions throughout the county. Our programs that address this strategy are: Emergency Food Assistance Program, Harvest Bag (volunteer-driven), . Our Senior Programs are expanding to include not only regular distributions but also volunteer deliveries for homebound residents and extra distributions of fresh produce at low-income senior living facilities. Fresh produce for all programs is donated by local farmers, gleaned by volunteers, and purchased through the California Food Bank's Farm to Family program. Our GleanSLO program connects volunteers with farmers and landowners to harvest extra produce for distributions. We also provide nutrition education at distribution sites, including cooking demonstrations, to help recipients use the fresh produce they receive. 2) We build long-term solutions that reduce hunger and improve health for County residents. We conduct CalFresh (SNAP food stamp) outreach at distributions to ensure that people can access food benefits. We also advocate with County Supervisors to increase access to CalFresh by reducing barriers and we work with County Department of Social Services staff to streamline the CalFresh enrollment process. In addition, our staff work to educate the public and our elected officials about how we can reduce hunger. Over the past four years we have implemented two large USDA grants to address local hunger issues. The initial grant, a Hunger-Free Communities planning grant, provided the foundation for the Food Bank to survey local residents' food needs, form the SLO County Food System Coalition (a network of partner organizations) and develop a Hunger-Free Community plan. This plan, Paradox of Plenty: A Community Roadmap for Overcoming Hunger in San Luis Obispo County, was presented to the County Board of Supervisors in October 2012 and is being implemented by the SLO County Food System Coalition. The second grant, a Community Food Project grant, is allowing us to expand our gleaning program, GleanSLO, which has rescued over 360,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables and engaged over 1,000 community volunteers. The Community Food Project also includes an administrator to guide the SLO County Food System Coalition, Farm to School activities, and community workshops on gardening and food preservation. Through this and our other work, we are deepening our connections with those who are working to increase healthy food consumption in our community.

As the hub of food distribution in the county and a trusted resource for low-income residents, the Food Bank is uniquely situated to assist those in need. Perhaps the most significant piece of the Food Bank's capacity to build long-term solutions is our ability to form new and innovative collaborative relationships with other low-income resource providers, food system-related organizations, and our agency partners to bring vital services directly to our clients. And the Food Bank is a key partner and founder of the SLO County Food System Coalition and a partner in the HEAL-SLO (Healthy Eating Active Living) collaborative. We have extensive partnerships with County departments, California Polytechnic State University, faith-based organizations, non-profits, and the 75 community-based organizations that form our coalition of food providers. Our new USDA Community Food Project grant also includes a wide range of collaborators, many of whom we work with through the Food System Coalition, including UC Cooperative Extension, local school districts, Central Coast Grown, Salvation Army, and CAP-SLO. We undergo both a federal audit and a regular audit by a local firm (Glenn Burdette Associates) that specializes in non-profit clients. All Food Bank operations are monitored annually by Feeding America. USDA Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP) audits us through the California Department of Social Services. Our CalFresh Outreach is audited annually by the California Association of Food Banks. Individual Food Bank staff members collect and exchange information with colleagues at larger Food Banks throughout the State. The result of this is that the staff of the Food Bank has an extensive storehouse of knowledge and experience, both theoretical and practical, to call upon in the performance and fulfillment of service issues in its programs and operations to supply food free to low-income residents and free or low-cost to county agencies. Our fourteen-member Board of Directors consists not only of those who bring non-profit board experience, but also grassroots level experience in our programs.

The Food Bank Coalition measures progress using both quantitative and qualitative indicators. Key indicators include: • Percentage of low-income population enrolled in CalFresh (food stamp) program, participant responses regarding ease of enrollment • Pounds of food distributed • Percentage of food distributed that is fresh fruits and vegetables • Pounds of produce gleaned and gathered from Farmers' Markets • Number of recipients by program and site • Number and type of distribution sites • Number of agency partners • Number and type of volunteers • Donations by type (event, individual giving, etc. ) • Number of Hunger-Free Communities Plan strategies that have been accomplished • Number of recipients engaged in nutrition education • Number of children served at Children's Farmers Markets • Increase in willingness to eat fresh produce by children at low-income schools • Increase in knowledge of the local food system by children at low-income schools • Increase in knowledge of low-income residents of how to cook and preserve produce We meet regularly with staff and with community partners to review our progress toward goals and make changes in services as needed based on the data collected by each program. Activities that address our long-term goal of hunger solutions have annual milestones.

Our short-term goal is to continue to provide hunger relief for those in need. We are very proud that we have been able to address the rapidly rising level of food insecurity, providing food for 90% more recipients. We have also taken steps to increase the percentage of high-quality fresh produce and eliminate sugary and over-processed foods in our distributions. The low-income population that we serve is especially susceptible to the consumption of inexpensive but less nutritious food. It is well known that some of the most tragic and costly diseases are preventable through healthier eating. A Nutrition Policy was adopted in 2013 to guide our purchasing and donations toward food that is low in sugar, saturated fats, and sodium and high in whole grains, protein, and fresh vegetables. We have been increasing the percentage of fresh fruit and vegetables in our food provisions and are now up to 50%. We have developed new sources for produce, including local gleaning and farmer donations, to ensure that the produce received by families is as fresh and enticing as possible. GleanSLO has expanded from a volunteer program in 2010 to one with a full-time program manager and assistant, online registration system, 90 farmer participants, 1,000 volunteer gleaners, & produce collection at two large Farmers' Markets. Perhaps most importantly in the long run, we have taken the lead in initiatives that work to increase the overall health of our low-income residents and our food system. This has strengthened our relationships with many sectors and allowed us to work collaboratively on reducing hunger, greatly expanding our capacity to do research, educate the public, plan strategically, and implement services. Examples of this include the formation of the Food System Coalition, the development of GleanSLO, Cal Poly research to identify hunger issues and securing the highly-competitive USDA Community Food Project grant to channel more resources to our low-income communities. Because the greatest untapped food resources are federal funding in the form of food stamps (CalFresh), we have worked to increase access to this resource. We have added a CalFresh Outreach Coordinator to enroll eligible residents. CalFresh enrollments supplied a supplemental food income of $1,800,000 for 500 low-income families.