Michael Hildebrant unloading a food run.

We are so fortunate to have a lot of parents volunteering with their children.   Our ChowMatch system and phone app make it easy for volunteers to view available food runs and sign up for a run that fits their schedule, and even sign up for a regular run. Annie Hildebrandt and her teen son Michael often do food runs together, as underage students are required to be accompanied by a parent. Annie works for herself in property management. Her work involves a lot of driving, and Annie often finds time to squeeze in a food run. Her son Michael attends Woodside Priory School, a school that places great emphasis on community service and giving back to the community. The Hildebrandt family started off with a splash in 2022: Annie’s husband Andreas delivered over 800 pounds of food in his truck to 5 recipients on his first day! To date, the family has done over 290 food runs, averaging about 10 runs a month. It’s quite a family affair: even Annie’s 9-year-old daughter and Annie’s mother have accompanied her on runs. Despite Michael’s after-school sports practice, he and his mom generously still find time to volunteer – even on Michael’s 16^th birthday, two days before Thanksgiving! Delivering to Spring Street Shelter, Michael says, “It’sit’s so great to see everyone come outside smiling and happy to see the food arriving.” He enjoys spending time with family doing food runs together, and serving others. His school requires only a few hours of community service a year, but Michael volunteers several times a month, including volunteering at a soup kitchen. 

We encourage our runners to choose food runs that are close to them to maintain a low carbon footprint. Fortunately, Annie purchased an EV last year that comes with two years of free charging. We noticed Annie signed up for some extra-long runs quite far from her home, around 30 to 40 miles. It turns out Michael had just gotten his driver’s license. So Annie picked out a few extra-long distance runs to give Michael more practice driving. The longest run was 64 miles round trip! Fortunately, Michael only needed to do a few such long distance runs. We immensely appreciate the Hildebrandt family’s dedication to serving the communityappreciate the Hildebrandt family’s dedication to serving the community immensely. It’s so inspirational!

Palo Alto Networks joined Peninsula Food Runners as a donor back in 2019. We pick up food from Palo Alto Networks in Santa Clara the same day that the food is made or within 24 hours, so it’s fresh. The Bon Appetit café serves breakfast and lunch to 1300-1500 employees a day. 

Did you know there is a National Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Day? Once or twice a year, employees at Palo Alto Networks host a volunteer event for the company’s employees around that date and other times during the year. They invite the employees to make hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a single day. They donate to Peninsula Food Runners to bring to our recipients. The sandwiches, made with white and wheat bread, don’t require refrigeration. They are easy to make: they don’t require any cooking skills. They are low cost which allows the company to feed as many as possible. It’s a great, feel-good and team-building activity for the employees to do community service together. The café run by Bon Appetit provides labor, sets up and purchases the ingredients, paid for by Palo Alto Networks. And our nonprofit partners get an extra boost of food. This April, they are shooting to make for making 2000 PB&J sandwiches. Thank you, Palo Alto Networks and staff for all you give to the community!  

Resident volunteers at Life’s Gardens affordable housing receiving produce donated by the Sunnyvale Farmers’ Market.

With the help of our dedicated Peninsula Food Runner volunteers, we’ve been delivering donated food to Life’s Garden Apartments, a large affordable housing residence in Sunnyvale since 2019.   About 100–150 residents participate, especially eager for fresh produce from the Sunnyvale Farmers’ Market every Saturday. The community is wonderfully diverse, including Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Thai, Russian, Latino, and other backgrounds.

Since most affordable housing sites lack weekend staff, we encourage resident volunteers to assist. Nina, the resident services coordinator, has successfully organized weekend food distribution by recruiting and training volunteers. She provides clear rules and guidelines in multiple languages and ensures a smooth, respectful process. Residents draw numbers for a fair distribution, and volunteers portion out the food.