Best Agriculture Nonprofit (2015)

Food Bank for Monterey County

815 W. Market St., Ste. 5, Salinas

(831) 758-1523 www.foodbankformontereycounty.org

The Salinas Valley feeds the nation while our own folks go hungry. The Food Bank and its volunteers work hard to fix this through programs like the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which distributes fresh produce and other food at 26 sites every month. This program alone feeds 8,500 households monthly and delivers 2.6 millions pounds of food annually. To put it in the simplest terms of all: For every $1 people donate, the Food Bank distributes $5 worth of food, putting the bucks to great use and the food where it’s needed most. An arson fire on March 21 destroyed four of the Food Bank’s delivery trucks and its loading dock, making receipt or delivery of food difficult. But the Food Bank rallied and the community rallied with it, donating funds and volunteer time to get operations back up and running. Yay for the community, and big yay for the Food Bank.