On this particular afternoon, Diana Bacho is strolling past a row of food, picking out the best for her family. She selects a plastic container of strawberries, a treat that’ll she use to makefor her three children. She balances it out with vegetables — carrots and sweet potatoes — plus a whole chicken to prepare chicken tinga or serve with mole.
Kendra Bacho, 2, nibbles on fresh carrots as her mother, Diana Bacho, picks up groceries at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley’s giveaway, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022, in San Jose, Calif. The family is among the 450,000 people each month who receive free groceries from Second Harvest. Just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Second Harvest was providing groceries for 250,000 people every month. That number doubled as people lost their jobs — after all, no one needed office janitorial staff when people weren’t coming to work — or stayed home to provide childcare for kids who were suddenly locked out of classrooms.
That provided a level of safety when infection fears were at their peak and was also more convenient as it allowed clients to get their food without leaving their cars. But it left clients little choice about what they received and sometimes families ended up with items that they wouldn’t use. That was where Diana Bacho found herself. She worked in sales and at a local supermarket to supplement her husband’s income as a contractor. But during Santa Clara County’s mandatory shelter-in-place regulations, her husband was out of work for four months, leaving them unable to pay rent for the one-bedroom San Jose apartment they’ve lived in for the past 10 years or to repair their car.