Dear Community,

Berkeley Food Network has spent the last year upholding
our commitment to ensure our vulnerable neighbors can
reliably access fresh, nutritious groceries. After my hiring
as Executive Director in January, I am filled with immense
gratitude and optimism over the work the team at Berkeley
Food Network accomplished this last year. I am grateful for
the unwavering support of all our stakeholders in
advancing our mission and am determined to continue our
work of ending hunger and food insecurity in Berkeley and
beyond.

This last year we built a strong foundation for our
organization as we firmly exited the pandemic and the
start-up phase of our operations. With a focus on long-term

A Letter From Our Executive Director

sustainability, we built

systems and improved our

programs to ensure we are providing

the highest level of service to our

community. Berkeley Food Network has never been

more prepared to meet the needs of our neighbors.

We saw an increase in nearly 40% of visits to our
distribution programs since last year. It has become clear
that heightened levels of food insecurity are not
decreasing to pre-pandemic levels, and are in fact
remaining elevated due to factors beyond our control–
wages, housing, and access to social safety net benefits.

We met this growing need by transitioning our programs
to better support our neighbors, sourcing over 600,000