San Jose food bank preps warehouse shutdown after facing rent hike
SAN JOSE — Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, one of the Bay Area’s key food banks, has decided to shut one of its warehouses after the nonprofit learned it was facing a rent hike.
The warehouse that will be soon be shuttered is at 528 Brennan Street in San Jose, according to the food bank, which had considered the site temporary. The nonprofit has been using the warehouse for volunteer production shifts and to store equipment, supplies, and food.
San Jose-based Second Harvest was told by its landlord that a multi-year rent increase was in the offing for the Brennan Street warehouse.
“We analyzed our current operational and volunteer needs and determined that the cost required to maintain the facility is no longer the best use of our resources,” said Diane Baker Hayward, a spokesperson for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.
Second Harvest intends to close the warehouse by Aug. 31, the nonprofit said.
“This decision comes with challenges such as moving some operations back into our existing warehouses while also securing additional space for equipment storage,” Hayward said.
The looming shutdown of the warehouse comes at a challenging time for the nonprofit, which is seeing heightened demand for its services during a period of soaring inflation.
After the coronavirus outbreak, demand began to rise for food services after many workers lost their jobs due to business shutdowns ordered by state and local government agencies.
“Since the level of need on our community skyrocketed to serving over 500,000 people every month, Second Harvest has been operating out of four warehouses,” Hayward said.
These consist of three warehouses in San Jose and one in San Carlos, according to Second Harvest. The San Jose locations include the one scheduled to be closed.
“We are serving as many people as we did in the fall of 2020 but with 40% less support from donors,” Hayward said.
Second Harvest of Silicon Valley began leasing the Brennan Street location, a 90,000-square-foot warehouse, due to skyrocketing demand for the nonprofit’s food services arising from coronavirus-spawned economic maladies.
“Our other facilities were bursting at the seams as we doubled our volume quickly to meet the rising need in our community,” Hayward said.
The prospect of a multi-year lease accompanied by a rate increase prodded Second Harvest to halt operations there and consolidate its locations.
The Brennan site closure means some jobs assigned there will be shifted as the food bank shuffles worker locations.
“The closure of Brennan will require us to restructure some of our teams,” Hayward said. “We are just beginning to create a plan to address these changes.”
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