When you walk down North Santa Cruz Avenue, it is easy to feel insulated from the harsher realities of Silicon Valley. But every so often, the contrast hits close to home. You might see an unhoused neighbor pushing a shopping cart filled with all their worldly belongings along the sidewalk.
It is a quiet moment that asks for something fundamental to our shared humanity: Do we turn away, or do we look closer?
That struggle on our streets is only the surface of a much deeper, hidden crisis.
Across Santa Clara County, food insecurity affects thousands of residents, working parents, fixed-income seniors and unhoused individuals. The scale of the paradox is staggering. In the United States, roughly 30% to 40% of the entire food supply is wasted, translating to over 100 billion pounds of food thrown into landfills each year.
Yet here in Silicon Valley, one of the wealthiest concentrations of capital on Earth, an estimated 1 in 4 residents is at risk of food insecurity. Tons of perfectly fresh, wholesome food is discarded daily, even as parents in our communities skipmeals so their children can eat.
The movement to bridge this heartbreaking gap started with a child’s simple, piercing question.
Years ago, Ewell Sterner, then an executive in the hospitality industry, was asked by his 8-year-old son why anyone was going hungry when so much food existed.
That innocent observation sparked the creation of Hunger at Home, a visionary non-profit dedicated to rescuing surplus food and turning commercial waste into lifeline meals. To date, Hunger at Home has sourced, prepared and distributed tens of millions of pounds of food and critical surplus to non-profit partners and residents, transforming a logistical problem into community salvation.
My wife, Lissa, and I became deeply involved in this work through our role as co-chairs of the Community Service Projects and Grants Committee at the Rotary Club of Los Gatos. Through Rotary, we’ve seen firsthand how systemic solutions and personal service can transform local lives.
Numerous times throughout the year, Lissa and I ask our fellow Rotarians to join us at dawn on Monday mornings at the San José Flea Market, a distribution hub generously made possible by the Bumb family. Typically, eight to ten of us show up early to spend an hour packing bags with fresh produce: apples, lemons, peppers, avocados or whatever healthy bounty Hunger at Home rescued that week.
We stack and organize cartons of milk, yogurt, loaves of fresh bread, and cuts of meat or poultry, preparing for the influx.
What makes volunteering with Hunger at Home even more gratifying is listening to the passion in Ewell’s voice as he speaks to the volunteers, explaining the prevalence of food insecurity and how Hunger at Home addresses it. Even more moving is seeing how he has mentored his young assistants.
Over time, Lissa and I have watched these youth grow remarkably in their poise, eloquence, and ability to
Lead. Following a brief, inspiring prep talk from Ewell and his young team, two long
rows of cars begin to roll through.
Over the next two hours, we load provisions directly into more than 250 vehicles. The experience is bittersweet. The gratitude from recipients is immediate and overwhelming, you see it in tired eyes, relieved smiles and soft, heartfelt words of thanks. But beneath that gratitude lies a heavy, persistent sadness. It is sobering to realize that in our prosperous valley, hundreds of families must line up at dawn for hours just to secure basic groceries. It is food insecurity staring you directly in the face.
Hunger at Home plays a critical role in solving this crisis by helping local businesses adapt to California’s organic waste reduction laws, which mandate a 75% reduction in organic waste disposal to keep edible food out of landfills.
Hunger at Home manages the entire chain, from collection and strict health and safety compliance to cold storage, preparation and distribution.
Compassion begins as a feeling we experience when passing someone in distress on North Santa Cruz Avenue, but it cannot end there. Compassion is an active choice to ensure that no one in our county goes without the basic human dignity of a meal. By supporting food rescue initiatives and recognizing the needs around us, we can turn a moment of observation in downtown Los Gatos into lasting, life-changing impact across our valley.
