Our Profile

The Food Bank's mission is to provide nutritious food to the low-income residents of the City of Alameda on a non-discriminating basis. The Alameda Food Bank is a private, non-affiliated, non-profit, tax-exempt agency. Board members and virtually all staff are dedicated volunteers from the community.

The Food Bank was founded in 1977, by a group of concerned local citizens who saw the need in the community for a source of free food for those in need. Originally, the Food Bank operated out of a closet in the back room of a church. Two or three volunteers served an average of 35 individual recipients per month during the few hours that the Food Bank closet was open. As word of the Food Bank’s services spread within the community the number of recipients, and the number of volunteers recruited to serve those recipients, steadily increased. Last year the Food Bank’s fifty regular volunteers served an average of 1,350 individual recipients per month from the Food Bank’s 1,500 square foot, handicapped accessible, office/warehouse (donated by the City of Alameda).

The community’s wide-spread acceptance and support of the Food Bank’s mission has also been well manifested in the amount of donations received. Though started on a shoestring, the Food Bank has become one of Alameda’s primary social service organizations. The Food Bank's volunteer Board of Directors is proud of the fact that the Food Bank has kept its purity of purpose; cost effectively providing low-income residents of Alameda with a five-day supply of nutritionally balanced groceries, at no cost to the recipients. In addition to its regular food distribution program, the Food Bank is the Alameda distribution site for USDA government surplus food and also acts as a comprehensive information and referral service, advising our clients of the availability of other social services.