The San Luis Obispo County chapter of the 100+ Women Who Care organization donated $13,500 to the SLO Food Bank's GleanSLO Program.
GleanSLO — the gleaning program with the food bank — works with local commercial growers and private homeowners who produce more fruit or vegetables than they can harvest.
The program then harvests the extra produce to be distributed by the Food Bank Coalition.
The 100+ Women Who Care organization supports local nonprofits like GleanSLO with donations twice a year. Each of the group's members donates $100 twice a year to be given to local charities.
“This was a difficult year to select the nonprofit we wanted to support because there are so many extraordinary organizations offering direct relief to those in need during these trying times," SLO 100+ Women Who Care founder Cathie Orrick said in a statement Wednesday. "Ultimately, we chose GleanSLO, the gleaning program with SLO Food Bank. Our collective contribution will allow the Food Bank, through the countywide gleans, to offer more fresh, local produce to its 82 Agency Partners."
Since 2008, the organization has donated more than $250,000 to local nonprofits.
This donation comes at a critical time for the SLO Food Bank which stated, "the rate of hunger skyrocketed by 154% since the beginning of 2020."
