Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

Summary

What do they do? A proposed 13-pickup course through community partners. This dose is a modeling assumption, not a verified schedule at every site. Compare with existing food, benefits and alternative pantries, not starvation. More

Why this approach interests us

• Additional assistance may improve food security beyond what existing services provide.

Our main reservations

• The pathway from assistance to incremental health contains judgmental causal, duration and financing assumptions. A zero health effect remains plausible.

What do you get for your dollar?

Our best guess is $64,596,273 per better life—10 incremental QALYs. This is an exploratory program model, not measured organization-wide effectiveness. Inspect the model →

best guess

$64,596,273 — USD per 10 incremental QALYs; very low confidence

positive scenarios

$322,061–$90,434,782,609 — Joint assumptions, not confidence bounds

geography

Santa Clara and San Mateo; not San Francisco city — Kept separate from SF-city recommendations

funding room

Unverified — Not a current restricted donation offer

1. What do they do?

A proposed 13-pickup course through community partners. This dose is a modeling assumption, not a verified schedule at every site. Compare with existing food, benefits and alternative pantries, not starvation.

Scope of this review. Santa Clara and San Mateo; not San Francisco city

2. Monitoring and information sharing

3. Qualitative assessment

Additional assistance may improve food security beyond what existing services provide.

Key reservations

• Food access, dignity and purchasing power have value not fully captured by this narrow health ledger.
• Do not add food-bank and downstream partner effects for the same household.
• The favorable case does not establish an available or cost-effective marginal gift.

Benefits not included in our estimate

• Unmodeled child development and mortality
• Public benefits converted directly into QALYs
• Whole-organization reach
• Unverified healthcare savings

4. What do you get for your dollar?

$64,596,273 per 10 QALYs

Freshplace randomized 228 adults to client-choice pantry plus motivational interviewing and referrals, versus conventional pantry care. It supports food-security improvement from a bundle, not a measured grocery-only effect here. The .023 utility anchor is an observational insecure-versus-secure contrast; 35% of modeled exits from very low food security are assumed to reach the study secure category. The .023 observational utility contrast compares USDA adult responses 0–2 (food secure, including marginal security) with 3+ (insecure). Favorable one-year health duration assumes persistence beyond the six-month course without further paid treatment; it is not demonstrated by that course.

A better life is our comparison unit of 10 additional quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), potentially spread across people. These are uncertain estimates, not measured returns or verified donation offers.

How we calculate the estimate

INSPECTABLE HEALTH BRIDGE: Q = financing × (exit probability × secure share × adult equivalents × utility × transfer × effective years − harm); price = 10 × donor cost / Q when Q > 0
$64,596,273

Constructed course costs—not a verified funding tranche

• Favorable: $322,061 per 10 QALYs. 0.004657 QALY per modeled unit. Maximum cost to reach $100K/10Q: $46.57
• Central: $64,596,273 per 10 QALYs. 0.00005031 QALY per modeled unit. Maximum cost to reach $100K/10Q: $0.50
• Pessimistic positive: $90,434,782,609 per 10 QALYs. 7.188e-8 QALY per modeled unit. Maximum cost to reach $100K/10Q: $0.00

Uncertainty. No extra delivery or no causal health improvement gives no finite positive impact price. Harm can outweigh benefit. Financing multiplies both added benefit and harm; unchanged delivery does not create new harm.

5. Funding and previous grants

No additional-course offer verified. Existing public commodities, reserves, donated inventory and partner sites may fund the same service. A warehouse capital campaign is not this course.

Central $325 = 13 × ($10 purchased food + $15 logistics/staff/overhead). These are judgmental marginal allowances, not audited unit costs. An expanded resource illustration is $1,040, including $585 donated-food opportunity value and $130 partner/volunteer/participant time. It is not a complete societal incremental cost. No additional-course offer verified. Existing public commodities, reserves, donated inventory and partner sites may fund the same service. A warehouse capital campaign is not this course.

This review does not establish a verified marginal funding offer or a complete history of grants.

We have not verified a suitable donation route for this reviewed activity. Confirm the legal recipient and intended allocation before donating.

6. Sources

1. Provider audited accounts. Primary source. Primary program, funding or research evidence. Published: FY2025; retrieved: 2026-09-07.
2. Freshplace randomized trial. Primary source. Primary program, funding or research evidence. Published: 2013; retrieved: 2026-09-07.
3. Food security and utility study. Primary source. Primary program, funding or research evidence. Published: 2023; retrieved: 2026-09-07.

Annual expenses: years and sources

Average annual expenses (three consecutive fiscal years): Not available. Organization size is separate from the modeled cost-effectiveness of a donation.

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

Three years of organization-level expenses have not yet been verified for this report. No other organization or fiscal sponsor budget has been substituted.