CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK
DAY JOB: Runs one of OC’s largest nonprofits, which annually receives services and food donations worth tens of millions of dollars. Reported cash contributions approaches $10 million annually; serves some 750,000 people annually.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Hired 120 nonprofit and restaurant workers who were hit by furloughs and layoffs in COVID-19 crisis, for part-time work. Organized a pop-up, drive-thru food bank at the Honda Center on March 21 in response to the pandemic. Fed 2,728 households from 7:45 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Effort accomplished with 30 volunteers and 15 staff. Anaheim police officers, traffic control supported. Was serving an average of 4,500 households (cars) each weekend, at the Honda Center. Since that first distribution, Second Harvest had distributed 824,688 pounds of food through end of May.
NOTABLE: Working to translate grocery rescue program to the restaurant industry. Last year, Second Harvest picked up and distributed about 15 million pounds of food, that five or 10 years ago would have ended up in a landfill. Almost half the food Second Harvest provided to those in need last year came from its grocery rescue program. Hopes to translate the program to restaurants in the future to further reduce food waste. Told OC Register in April that Second Harvest was looking for about $500,000 more a week in donations, to cover the cost of not only maintaining its current efforts but to fund more staffers, while servicing thousands of critical needs households affected by the virus, including seniors.
QUOTABLE: “If there were ever an industry on the front lines of every emergency—a hurricane, a flood, a fire—it’s the food community. When the American Red Cross shows up at the site of a disaster, the food industry comes together as a community, feeding first responders and those who need support,” Herrmann told the Business Journal in March.
FAST FACTS: In 1995, Herrmann helped launch the flagship Yard House, which was bought by Darden Restaurants Inc. where he became president of its Specialty Group (Seasons 52, Capital Grille and others). Herrmann joined Second Harvest Food Bank in 2019 as CEO. Of the opportunity to serve, he said “If not now, when?”
