Our Food
From Food Pantry—to Nutrition Pantry
Bringing healthier food to the pantry brings the gift of health to our visitors.
For those among us who are nutrition insecure, the cheapest calories are often the least nutritious. This often leads to diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension. In order to help our visitors improve their health, we are committed to offering them the most nutritious, best tasting food we can. Visitors have told us that they have been able to lose weight and improve their health because of the good food they receive at the Berkeley Food Pantry.
We stock our shelves with such things as dried legumes and low-sodium canned legumes, fish and soups, whole grain pastas and breads, oatmeal, and low-sugar breakfast cereals; our freezer with frozen chicken, fish and beef; our refrigerator with fresh dairy; and fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables.
We encourage healthier food donations to the pantry. We work with the Berkeley Neighborhood Food Project, who donate about 2,000 pounds of food to us every two months, to bring us more of the healthy foods that are expensive for us to buy. We encourage groups who organize food drives for us to use our most desired food list. Working together as a community, we can all give our neighbors in Berkeley and Albany the gift of health.
Where does the Pantry get its food?
The Berkeley Food Pantry is an official distribution site for the USDA's Emergency Food Assistance Program. In addition, we purchase food from the Alameda County Community Food Bank and various grocery stores. The Pantry also receives donations of food from local grocery stores and individuals in the community.
More fresh food than ever. Also, thanks to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, Berkeley Natural Grocery, Albany Target, Daily Bread, Urban Adamah, and neighborhood gleaners, we receive fresh produce, fresh dairy, and frozen meat at the pantry three days a week.
Our pantry guests are grateful for this fresh food and we're always looking for ways to increase the amount we can offer them. Here's how you can help:
Your donation of funds will help us to locate, pick up, and deliver even more of this bounty to the pantry.
We welcome donations of seasonal produce from our neighbors' fruit trees and vegetable gardens.
Do you have a contact at a local grocery store or one of the local farmer's markets? Let us know and we'll take it from there.
To arrange a pickup or share a contact, email our pantry manager:
Grocery rescue helps feed people and saves the planet!
Food waste is a global problem that can only be solved at the local level. Rescuing food from the waste stream has big impacts for eliminating hunger and decreasing greenhouse gases.
We humans waste one in every three food calories produced. The number of calories we lose to waste is enough to feed three billion people (that is 10 times the population of the United States!)
Furthermore, redirecting good food from the waste stream decreases greenhouse gases and saves precious resources. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that food waste accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas. 21% of fresh water is used to produce good food that ends up in the waste stream. Food waste accounts for 21% of landfills.
As of 2021, the Berkeley Food Pantry has rescued 1,072,921 pounds from the waste stream and redirected it to Berkeley and Albany households.