Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County Honors Community’s COVID-Year Support
This year’s Hunger Fighters of the Year are Brenda Villafana and her friends and family, who volunteered more than 500 hours to keep the Freedom School food distribution site open, and Mary Wells, lead volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul’s Our Lady Star of the Sea pantry.
Brenda Villafana (second from right) and her team of friends and family.
Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County honored them March 4 at its first ever virtual Annual Awards via Zoom and celebrated the 2020 Holiday Food and Fund Drive, which raised more than 5.5 million meals, the most ever, in a year when the COVID pandemic left so many struggling economically, doubling the numbers of people seeking food for themselves and their families.
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive will succeed Megan Martinelli as co-chair with County Administrative Officer Carlos Palacios for the 2021 Holiday Food & Fund Drive, which kicks off in November.
Second Harvest Food Bank, founded in 1972, saw unprecedented need in 2020, supplying 150 local agencies and programs to feed 85,000 people — one of every three county residents.
Villafana had a team of seven, her daughter, son, grandchild and three friends — Maria Elena, Angel, Pablo, Jose, Angelina and Rosa. The five adults are farm workers, all Watsonville residents for 15-plus years and loyal volunteers. Typically, the Freedom School food distribution site has 12 volunteers but due to the pandemic, only seven could help. This team did not want the food distribution to stop, so they kept it going, while social distancing and taking precautions to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
Mary Wells
Wells volunteered for 20 years at St. Vincent de Paul pantry, which feeds 70 to 100 people a week. She arranges the weekly food order, organizes the pantry and helps others with joy, dignity and love. She greets people who come in and listens to their stories.
When a community member she befriended became temporarily homeless, then in a car accident and in a walker and living on very little, she spent many hours driving her friend to buy cat food, put rides on a bus pass, and get groceries.
A special Lifetime Achievement Award went to KSBW-TV under Joseph W. Heston, president and general manager who retired in 2020. KSBW hosted Share Your Holiday, which raised millions for Second Harvest and The Salvation Army. After shelter in place, KSBW organized Project Community: A Day of Help and Hope, raising $525,000 for tri-county food banks, with $236,000 for Santa Cruz County.
Community Spirit Awards
Oliva Strusis Bregante
Olivia Strusis Bregante, inspired by her mom Melissa, a Sutter Health nurse, started a class project to raise 1,000 meals for families who lost their jobs because of COVID-19 and raised 2,748 meals.
Sisters Finnly & Juniper Grillos organized their first virtual fundraising campaign with a video, raising 3,069 meals.
Malia Nacht learned how to sew during the pandemic, sewing masks to keep friends and relatives safe and donating money she made. She raised 2,088 meals.
Main Street Elementary School office manager Jennifer Del Carlo organized teachers, students and families to focus on virtual fundraising, generating 8,979 meals, a school record.
Neighborhood Awards
Malia Nacht and family
Under Gina Castaneda’s leadership, PV United Soccer joined the first worldwide Soccer United Against Hunger campaign and 15 local youth teams raised 19,772 meals.
Girl Scout Troop 15015, a small troop of girls, led a lemonade stand, donated from cookie sales, raising 4,149 meals.
Special Promotions
Sup Shack owner Trudie Ransom organized the SUP for Food fundraiser, dressing up like Santa and his elves, cruising the harbor on a standup paddle or kayak, raising 8,021 meals.
Three days before Christmas, a generous donor offered to match donations by KPIG listeners who mentioned KPIG when they gave. KPIG staff loved the idea. A listener in Marin heard the “hog call” and gave another match — resulting in 72,000 meals.
Coordinators of The Year
Jillian Ritter, a county analyst, was the coordinator for county government employees, a challenge since many worked at home. But she believed they would do their best. Departments held virtual gift basket raffles, silent online auctions, and got a match, surpassed their goal.
Finn and June Grillos
Sarah Marshall, coordinator at Rio Del Mar Elementary School, engaged the whole community, designing their very own flyers and raising 40,592 meals.
- Helping Hands Award: Community Foundation Santa Cruz County and executive director Susan True, for leadership through the pandemic and the fires, facilitating collaboration, and assisting with surveys, funding and matches.
- Above & Beyond Award: Bay Federal Credit Union raised the most ever, 127,599 meals, thanks to competition, prizes and pride at branches, among co-workers and supervisors with customers joining in and a generous donor matching donations.
- Lap Award: Canepa Motors owner Bruce Canepa pledged donations to Second Harvest Food Bank for every collector car sold during the pandemic, and donated 240,000 meals.
- Tech Feeds Hope: Susan Lovegren, who joined the food bank board in July, launched the Tech Feeds Hope Initiative to engage tech companies and tech professionals to fight hunger in Santa Cruz County, raising 371,148 meals.
Civic Engagement Awards
Christina Alberti, office supervisor in City of Santa Cruz Public Works, and her co-chair replaced cupcake sales with selling an online cookbook with recipes from city employees. City Manager Martin Bernal and his department heads supported competitions such as one between police and fire, won by fire. In all, city employees raised 69,235 meals.
Capitola City Clerk Chloe Woodmansee coordinated efforts by her 66 co-workers and with a match, they donated 8,301 meals.
Santa Cruz County analysts Jillian Ritter and Amy Miyakusu accepted the county award. They emphasized the importance of everyone contributing a little, and collectively that would amount to a lot. They surpassed their goal and a generous donor matched up to $50,000, raising 477,832 meals.
- CEO Award: Nathan McCall, manager of UC Santa Cruz human resources business information services, knew many neighbors and students faced food insecurity. The Banana Slugs raised 175,000 meals.
- Chairman’s Corporate Award: Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, led by president and CEO Beth Carr, launched “Return the Favor” to help nonprofits and donated 64,924 meals.
- Presidents Trophy: County of Santa Cruz employees’ goal was $50,000 and they raised $67,000, more than 477,000 meals, despite COVID restrictions, staff furloughs and the CZU wildfires. A matching donation of $50,000 helped.
Heavy Weight Champions
Twin Lakes Church members and staff made a massive effort — lemonade stands, home-prepared meals, outreach to friends and family, raising more than 2 million meals — a historic number.
When COVID hit, Driscoll’s was one of the first to call the food bank and ask, “What do you need?” At the time, a forklift was needed. Soon a forklift showed up, followed by sponsorships, and a large donation: More than 425,000 meals.