As Thanksgiving Day approaches and families prepare for their traditional meals, there will be a number of low-income families throughout the Bay Area who will not be able to afford to eat. Enter Second Harvest Food Bank, a longtime champion in the battle to end local hunger. Second Harvest has been serving Santa Clara and San Mateo counties for more than 40 years.

“We provide food to more than a quarter of a million people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties every month,” the organization states on is website. “More than half the people we serve are kids and seniors. We distribute healthy food, including more fresh produce than almost any other food bank in the country, through a network of 309 nonprofit partners at 985 sites.”

The non-profit offers an array of programs, such as Family Harvest, which “provides supplemental, nutritious food every month to low-income families with minor dependents”; and Operation Brown Bag, which “provides low-income seniors (age 60 and above) and disabled individuals (age 55 and above) a weekly bag of groceries,” among other excellent programs. Second Harvest has already provided more than 40 million meals so far in 2018.

With Thanksgiving Day right around the corner, there is no better time to help support organizations such as Second Harvest Food Bank. Donate now.