Intel Corporation named Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo
Counties as the recipient of a $100,000 technology makeover grant. Second
Harvest plans to use the grant to develop and install a warehouse inventory
tracking system that will enable the Food Bank to more efficiently process the
flow of food into and out of their warehouses.
The technology makeover grant is an effort to put technology to work for the
benefit of our community, said Michael Jacobson, California Public Affairs
Manager at Intel Corporation.
By radically re-engineering its inventory management system to use technology
similar to that used by large grocery chains, the Food Bank will be able to
increase its food distribution to hungry seniors, families and individuals in
Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties by 20 percent; all without additional
warehouse space or increasing its staff.
The new technology will have a huge impact on the communities we serve,
said Sue Perkins, CFO at Second Harvest. We will have up to the minute
visibility of our current inventory and be able to more efficiently allocate
food to our network of more than 700 partner non-profit agencies and
distribution sites.
The concept for the technology makeover came from a 2005 study released by
the Community Foundation Silicon Valley which uncovered that local nonprofit
organizations were still struggling to use technology to become more efficient
in providing services. The report called on non-profit financial contributors to
support the building of technological capacity for nonprofits, beyond just the
purchase of hardware. Intel California Public Affairs considered several
possible solutions to address the non-profit technology gap before settling on
the technology makeover grant. This grant is a great opportunity for the Food
Bank, said Perkins. Technology grants are few and far between but keeping our
systems upgraded is essential to our operation. We are fortunate that the people
at Intel saw this need and came forward with the technology makeover grant.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties is a private
non-profit organization that collects and distributes close to 30 million pounds
of food each year. We currently serve an average of 156,000 individuals each
month; 60% are low income families and 20% are seniors. By building
collaborative networks, we efficiently distribute food by leveraging donations
of money, food and human resources. But we cannot do it alone. We rely upon the
energy and commitment of the local community to fight hunger.
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