Dear Friends,

You’ll notice that our 2020-2021 annual report is a little more indepth than in previous years. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has been such an era-defining event that it feels appropriate to mark the challenges and accomplishments of this tremendously difficult period with a more substantial review.

Like food banks across the country, at Food Share we saw, with shocking immediacy, the devastating impact wreaked by the pandemic. We saw it in the thousands of people in cars, lining up for hours to pick up an emergency food box. We saw it in the anxious new faces visiting our pantry partners for the first time and in the tearful, round-the-clock calls to our headquarters.

In March of 2020, Food Share had to move quickly into disaster relief mode. The number of people being served climbed to 150,000 or more a month – double our previous estimates of 75,000 a month.

I am incredibly proud of our staff and volunteers for their willingness to put their own worries aside to serve others on the front line of Ventura County’s hunger-relief efforts. With their unwavering commitment, we were able to find innovative ways to scale up our operation at a time when so much else was shutting down.

Of course, it was not only about sourcing and distributing more food than ever before in our history. In the pages that follow, you’ll see the list of our agriculture partners, public and nonprofit agencies, and pantry partners that collaborated with Food Share to adapt to the “new normal” of the pandemic to keep food flowing to those in need. You’ll read about the critical role played by volunteers and the CA Air National Guard, without whom we could not have packed and distributed hundreds of thousands of emergency food boxes. And you’ll see why we value every single dollar donated to us with such extraordinary generosity.

If last year showed us anything, it was that together we can ensure that no one in Ventura County goes hungry.

With gratitude,

Monica White

PRESIDENT & CEO