Second Harvest of the Greater Valley

SHGV began as Good Samaritan Community Services in 1976 by administering State Brown Bag and Title III-B programs for low income senior citizens in San Joaquin County. Good Samaritan began to collect more food then it needed and began providing supplemental groceries to other nonprofit charities with food operations. In May of 1995, the food bank joined a national coalition of food banks known as Americas Second Harvest, now known as Feeding America. Joining this national coalition provided the opportunity to receive donations on a large corporate level and allowed for growth and expansion. In 1996 the food bank completed its separation from Good Samaritan and established its own non-profit entity as the San Joaquin Food Bank. In 2001 San Joaquin Food Bank merged with the Modesto-Riverbank-Stanislaus County Food Bank to form Second Harvest Food Bank of San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties (SHFB). The merging of these two entities allowed for a more effective and increased distribut...