Berkeley Food Network

To tackle food insecurity, the city of Berkeley has several establishments that provide groceries to those in need of assistance.

After an influx of people looking for free meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Berkeley Food Network is considering tackling “nutrition insecurity,” in addition to fighting hunger.

At Berkeley Food Network’s onsite pantry, clients visited 1,600 times a week in February 2020. This number increased to 5,000 in April of the same year, and has since remained constant, according to Berkeley Food Network, or BFN, office manager Erika Larson.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, so does the number of people with food insecurity, a reality Berkeley food organizations have been working to combat during the holiday season.

Food insecurity brings with it social stigma, and treating clients with dignity should be at the core of every food pantry’s mission.

Today, local agencies are floundering in feeding hundreds of thousands of hungry mouths because of a decentralized and overwhelmed food infrastructure.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Berkeley Food Network, which offers free groceries to all Berkeley residents and affiliates, has seen an increase from 1,600 to 5,000 customers per week.

Food banks and pantries serving the Berkeley area have seen an increase in demand for their services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With schools closed due to the shelter-in-place order, the Edible Schoolyard Project, which operates out of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, has been donating its harvests to the Berkeley Food Network.

City officials are currently exploring possible locations for a new permanent shelter that will replace the Berkeley Emergency Storm Shelter, or BESS, after a brainstorming session last week.