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September is Hunger Action Month

Writer: Anthony Parker
Anthony Parker
Sep 18
3 min read
OHK Executive Director, John Bost (left), with Derek Penrice at the Open Heart Food Bank

This Hunger Action Month, your support of Open Heart Kitchen can go even further through a special matching campaign with the Community Health and Education Foundation (CHEF). From September 15 through October 31, for every $1 donated to Open Heart Kitchen through CHEF's campaign, CHEF will contribute an additional 50 cents, up to our $45,000 campaign goal. That means if our supporters give $30,000, CHEF will add another $15,000 to nourish our community. Click here to support OHK during Hunger Action Month. 

September is Hunger Action Month. Launched in 2007, Hunger Action Month is a time dedicated to raising awareness about food insecurity and turning that awareness into action.


At Open Heart Kitchen, we believe hunger is a community issue. For more than 30 years, Open Heart Kitchen has worked to ensure that everyone in Dublin, Livermore, and Pleasanton has access to nutritious food with dignity and compassion. 


What began as a grassroots effort in 1995 has grown into the Tri-Valley’s largest hunger relief organization, providing meals, groceries, overnight shelter, and supportive services.


Hunger Is Closer Than We Think


Our region is viewed as an affluent place to live, but hunger and food insecurity exist here in the Tri-Valley every day. More and more local neighbors and families are finding themselves struggling to afford food while also paying for rent, utilities, healthcare, transportation, and other daily necessities.


The Alameda County Community Food Bank estimates that 1 in 4 county residents are experiencing food insecurity. These numbers remind us that hunger is not a problem anyone can solve alone. Fighting hunger takes a network of community members working together with agencies like Open Heart Kitchen to make a difference. 


How Open Heart Kitchen Helps


In 2025, Open Heart Kitchen provided 114,379 nourishing prepared meals to food-insecure Tri-Valley households through our Community Meal Program. Our Senior Meal Program served another 36,964 meals to older adults. In its first year of operations, our Open Heart Food Bank distributed the equivalent of 836,863 meals worth of groceries through nine partner agencies. 


Thousands of our neighbors in the Tri-Valley are going hungry today, and aren’t sure where their next meal will come from. Anyone facing food insecurity can rely on Open Heart Kitchen for a source of nutrition throughout the week for themselves and their families.


Altogether, Open Heart Kitchen provided nearly 1 million meals to people across the Tri-Valley in 2025.



Take Action This Hunger Action Month


Guided by our commitment to fostering an inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, and liberating environment, Open Heart Kitchen strives to serve our community with dignity, respect, and compassion. Together with our community partners, volunteers, and supporters, we are working toward a future where no one in the Tri-Valley experiences hunger.


Here are ways you can help make a difference:



This Hunger Action Month, we invite you to take action. Together, we can provide nutritious food today while building a food-secure tomorrow.


Support the Work of Open Heart Kitchen


Anyone in the Tri-Valley facing hunger can always find help at Open Heart Kitchen. But we can’t do it without the Tri-Valley community. Please consider donating to Open Heart Kitchen’s matching campaign, generously sponsored by the Community Health and Education Foundation.


Together, we can fight hunger and build a future where everyone has access to nutritious food and a sense of hope. Contact us now to learn more about how you can get involved and make a lasting difference. 


September is Hunger Action Month

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