Claudia Bonilla Keller says the number of hungry people in Orange County has risen about 50,000 to 360,000, or one of every nine people.
The biggest reason is inflation affecting not only food but also housing, which leaves less money for the grocery store.
Even with hunger growing and a dip in federal funding, the Second Harvest Food Bank, where Keller serves as chief executive, is working to keep pace with a $90 million budget, about the same as last year’s.
“We have to become efficient, more innovative,” Keller told the Business Journal.
“We’re learning to be nimble and adjust to a new reality in many different ways and having this nonprofit be more like a business.”
Some of those business-like methods include looking for new revenue streams, widening the number of supermarkets who supply food and making three-year plans instead of one-year plan.
“We don’t run from a challenge, but it’s not easy. “
Goal: Go out of Business
Keller won a Business Journal Women in Business Award last year for her work helping to feed local children, seniors, working families, the unhoused and college students.
Keller joined Irvine-based Second Harvest as chief mission officer in 2020 and was named CEO in January 2022, helping to guide the nonprofit through the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
Second Harvest, which was founded in 1983, is headquartered on a 6.5-acre site in Irvine that includes a 108,000-square-foot distribution center and a fleet of trailers. It also has a nearby 40-acre farm where it harvests more than 7 million pounds annually.
Second Harvest works with 265 partners at 350 locations and relies on some 18,000 volunteers. It distributes nutritious food through a network of partners and pantries that include houses of worship, schools, after-school programs, universities, senior centers and homeless shelters.
The food bank served 458,995 people per month in fiscal 2025, including 130,000 children and 101,000 senior citizens.
The financing comes from small monthly donations, philanthropic grants and private companies. About 15% of the nonprofit’s revenue comes from the government, which earlier this year eliminated $2 million for the food bank to purchase California produce.
While there is discussion in Washington D.C. about healthier diets, the way Second Harvest does business hasn’t changed.
“We still get very good food,” she said, adding that the federal government might even be expanding the commodities available to the nonprofit.
“We like to help individuals get to self-sufficiency. We don’t want to depend on the government.
“Ultimately, we want to do less. Our goal is to go out of business.”
