Good Neighbor Podcast: Orange County

Inside Second Harvest: How A Food Bank Nourishes An Entire County

• Rachel Fyffe & Linda Coss

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Hunger hides in plain sight, even in a place as resourceful as Orange County. We sit down with Linda Coss from Second Harvest Food Bank to unpack the real meaning of food insecurity and the often invisible toll it takes on energy, focus, mental health, and the ability to manage chronic conditions. One in nine of our neighbors faces this challenge, and the response requires more than good intentions—it demands a countywide system that prioritizes dignity, equity, and consistent access to nutritious food.

We walk through how a true food bank operates as the hub behind hundreds of pantries, moving 42.1 million pounds of food through a 108,000-square-foot distribution center with careful inventory, safety checks, and a fleet of trucks. Linda explains the five sourcing streams—manufacturer donations, wholesale purchasing focused on nutrition, grocery rescue, government programs, and a 45-acre farm at the Great Park where volunteers provide 90% of the labor. From fresh produce to staples, the emphasis stays on quality fuel that supports community health.

You’ll hear practical, high-impact ways to help: volunteer at the warehouse or the farm, host a virtual food drive to stretch dollars on wholesale purchases, make a donation of any size, advocate for better policies, take a behind-the-scenes tour, or invite an ambassador to speak with your company or community group. Linda also shares her personal why—gratitude for stability and a desire to be part of the solution for neighbors who are working hard yet still struggling under the high cost of living.

If you want to turn concern into action, this conversation gives you the roadmap. Join us, share this episode with a friend, and help build a healthier, more resilient Orange County. Subscribe for more local stories, leave a review to boost our mission, and tell us how you plan to get involved.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Rachel Fife.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Now, if you were looking to volunteer and want to know how you can help your local community, well, we have an organization that could use your help. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Linda Koss, with the second harvest food bank of Orange County. Linda, how is it going?

SPEAKER_01:

Rachel, it's going great. It's a beautiful day here in Orange County, and I'm excited to be here to talk about the food bank.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, wonderful. Well, tell us about the second harvest food bank of Orange County. Be happy to.

SPEAKER_01:

Second Harvest exists to tackle the problem of food insecurity here in Orange County, working towards a vision of having an Orange County that has food and nutritional security for one and all. And a really important thing for people to understand is that Second Harvest is a food bank, not a food pantry. And what this means is that Second Harvest does not directly hand out food to our neighbors in need. Instead, it acts as a giant food procurement and storage and distribution center. And they get the food and then they supply it to a partner network of 286 organizations. And it's these partner organizations that operate the hundreds of food pantries and distribution sites at which the food is given out to our neighbors in need here in Orange County. And a big focus that we have is on nutrition. In fact, the mission of food of the Second Harvest Food Bank is that in collaboration with our partners, we provide dignified, equitable, and consistent access to nutritious food in order to create a foundation for community health. Because without nutritious food, you just don't have good health.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, wow. Now you said Second Harvest exists to tackle the problem of food insecurity. So what exactly is food insecurity? Thanks for asking.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a lot of misunderstandings about that. Food insecurity means the ongoing chronic condition of not having access to enough food or food of adequate quality to meet your most basic, basic needs. So either you don't have enough to eat or what you do have is just not nutritious. And what a lot of people don't understand is the really huge impact that food insecurity can have on a person's mental and physical health. Of course, people who have chronic food insecurity are often quite hungry. Hunger is the thing that most people associate with the work of food banks. But the problem goes much deeper than that. Because if you don't have enough food to meet your basic nutritional needs, then you're at risk of constantly being exhausted. You're going to be tired. You don't have enough good nutrition. You might get brain fog. You might experience anxiety because you don't know where your next meal is coming from. You might get depressed. It could be traumatic, especially for children. You could get malnutrition. You know, not having enough food or food of adequate quality certainly could lead to malnutrition. Or imagine if you have something like diabetes that requires you to follow a special diet. How in the world are you going to manage that if you have to settle for whatever food you get? So that is what the problem of food insecurity is that we're here to address. Well, how big of a problem is food insecurity in Orange County? A lot bigger than you would think. A shocking 11% of our neighbors are experiencing food insecurity right here in Orange County. That's one in nine people. Can you imagine? And the level is just so huge that in the most recent fiscal year, Second Harvest distributed 42.1 million pounds of food here in Orange County. That's crazy. Wow, that's crazy. Where does Second Harvest get its food? Well, we source food five different ways. Number one, we get food donations from food manufacturers and distributors in bulk. So we're talking about truckloads or multiple pallet loads of two of food. Number two, we buy food on the wholesale market with a big focus on nutrition. So that once again is getting truckloads of nutritious food at wholesale prices. Number three, this is one of our biggest programs, the grocery rescue program. We rescue food that's perfectly good to eat from the grocery stores that they were going to have to throw away in order to make room on the shelves for new food that's come on. So we get that to people who need it. Number four, we get food from government-run sources. Number five, this one's my favorite because I think it's just the coolest. We grow produce on 45 acres of farmland in the Great Park area of Orange County, right here in Irvine, with volunteers providing 90% of the labor. It's a lot of produce that we grow because once again, big focus on nutrition.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. Now what happens to all this food once it's after it's procured?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, most of the food is brought in to our enormous 108,000 square foot facility in Irvine, which is near Sand Canyon in the Five. And once it comes in, it's inventoried, it's sorted, it's processed. For example, we'll have volunteers look at food to make sure it hasn't gone bad, because there's just no dignity in receiving bad food. And then we deliver it back out to our partners as soon as possible. We have a fleet of trucks, you might see them on the freeway or out there in your neighborhood. So we deliver it back out to the partner organization so they could get it out as quickly as possible.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, what can our listeners do to support Second Harvest? There's a lot of ways that people could get involved. And you can find more information on all of these on Second Harvest website, which is www.feedoc.org. Number one, as you mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, you can volunteer at the distribution center or at the farm. Volunteer shifts are available six days a week at the farm and five days a week at, no, six days a week at the distribution center, I'm sorry, and five days a week at the farm. There's options for kids as young as seven years old. Your teens that are at least 16 don't even need a chaperone. And there's no special training or ongoing commitment required. You could volunteer for one shift one time, and we will be very grateful for your help. You could host a virtual food drive. That's like an online fundraiser where all the money raised is used to purchase nutritious food in bulk on the wholesale market where money goes a whole lot further. You can make a donation, any amount is always appreciated. No amount is too large or too small. You could advocate for changes at the government level. You could sign up to take a tour of the distribution center and see how we do things. I guarantee you are going to be really impressed. You could request that Second Harvest send an ambassador like me, I'm a volunteer ambassador with this organization, to come speak to your group or your company to tell people about the food bank and what we do. Or you could just follow us on social media and keep up with what we're up to. Lots of ways for people to get involved.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. Well, you know, before we wrap up, I know you are a volunteer uh ambassador for Second Harvest. So what made you decide to get involved with Second Harvest?

SPEAKER_01:

I've been a supporter of Second Harvest for a couple decades, although I've only been an ambassador for about a year and a half. And the reason I got involved even way back then is that I know that I, like many of our listeners, I hope, are very, very fortunate. And I have a level of financial security that means that I always have nutritious food in the house to eat. But I know that many of our neighbors are just not as blessed as I am. Thanks to the sky-high cost of living, there's people who are working two jobs and seniors on limited income and many others who are experiencing this terrible problem of food insecurity. And I am involved because I want to be part of the solution. I want to help those who are not as fortunate as I am in any way that I can. And I hope that many of our listeners decide to get involved and be part of the solution as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Linda, you know, I really appreciate you being on the show and really sharing the sec what Second Harvest is all about and how people can get involved, especially as we get into this holiday time. I think it's so important. So we wish we wish them all the best. So thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. You bet.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmporangecounty.com. That's gmp orangecounty.com or call seven one four nine four one eight six two.