1. Home
  2. Investor Call - UC Santa Cruz BLUM Center on Food Insecurity
Investor Call - UC Santa Cruz BLUM Center on Food Insecurity logo

People are considered food insecure if they have limited or uncertain access to nutritious, safe food. Common indicators include fear of running out of food, skipping meals, hunger, and cutting down on portions. Santa Cruz County households with annual earnings of less than $50,000 missed 21 million meals in 2017-18.

Fast forward to 2020 and to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s need for food assistance in Santa Cruz County doubled almost overnight.

Join us on July 7th from 5:00 - 5:30 pm to hear from David Amaral, PhD Candidate and Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise and Participatory Governance Fellow about Santa Cruz County’s newest food insecurity numbers and what has changed over the past two years.  David will review his work for The Blum Center providing you with the most current, up-to-date data on hunger in Santa Cruz County. 


The original BLUM report came out November, 2019. This study, Tracking the Meal Gap in Santa Cruz County: An Index of Food Insecurity, 2014-2018, revealed the Santa Cruz County residents who are most at risk of food insecurity and are likely missing an average of five meals a week.
Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County logo
In Support of Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County

Together We are the Food Bank. Donors like you, volunteers, community partners, the AG community, businesses, the faith community, students, and families working alongside each other providing access to needed food for people in Santa Cruz County. 

We are the Food Bank – Reaching 65,000 people monthly ensuring they have access to healthy nutritious food. Our unity, working with 80 agencies, engages the community, teaches nutrition classes, distributes food and helps people access the CalFresh food assistance. Through all seasons, through the pandemic, fires, earthquakes, storms and floods, We are the Food Bank of our community. 

Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County is a member of Feeding America.