December 2025 Year End Recap

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Food Bank,

It has been an unprecedented month and year, challenging beyond any other year in our 30 years of operation.

The very good news is that thanks to our dedicated volunteers, donors and wonderful clients, we were able to meet the much-increased need for food in our community during the fall and early winter of 2025.

In December, at our regular food distribution on the 13th, we gave out 88 food bags as well as 115 frozen four-pound hams for the Christmas holiday. Our community partners, the Youth Enrichment Center and Senior Citizens of Patagonia each received hams for their holiday celebrations.

We are carefully examining the need for supplemental food within our community as it appears it has increased about 12% over our long-term average. November 2025 had a substantially higher increase but at this time we anticipate an overall increase in the neighborhood of 12-15%.

We look to the future with some trepidation as we anticipate the large impact of increases in health insurance in January, which will mean a strain on our client’s budgets that will translate to increased demand for food. We are in a very favorable position to meet any increased demand, however, because of our long-term planning and overwhelming support from our wonderful community.

We have seen an increase in people visiting our Monday vegetable distributions outside the Patagonia Senior Center. The supply of vegetables from Borderlands Produce Rescue is somewhat spotty, however our volunteers have been able to procure a good variety of vegetables for our community.

We look forward to serving our clients in 2026 and continuing our mission to ensure everyone has access to healthy, nutritious food.

We extend good wishes to our entire community, and hope for a future where no one goes hungry in East Santa Cruz County.

Thank you for your overwhelming support.

Jim