The Agency Clearinghouse serves as the primary food resource to a network of 140 Monterey County nonprofit agencies that serve the elderly, chronically ill, homeless, unemployed and working poor. Member agencies include churches’ food outreach ministries; emergency food pantries; soup kitchens; services to the homebound; homeless shelters; rehabilitation centers; residential treatment programs; youth and senior programs.
We encourage agencies with food programs to stretch the dollars they spend on food by becoming an Agency Clearinghouse member agency.
Member agencies visit our warehouse to select food from a wide variety of packaged food, as they would at their local grocery store. Agencies pay a shared maintenance fee of 19 cents per pound for the products they select. Our shared maintenance system provides agencies with a low-cost source of food and helps to defray our operation costs.
Our supplies include fresh produce, bread, canned foods and frozen products. We also purchase some items from wholesalers, from whom staple items are available to agencies at a low cost.
These Monterey County nonprofit agencies rely on the Food Bank as their main food resource: we supply 76% of all food distributed. This program also supplies food to Congregate Meal Sites, such as Monterey County soup kitchens.