Campus News
Holiday Food & Fund Drive: Give What You Get
Greetings, UC Santa Cruz Students, Faculty, and Staff! In this email, we’ll be sharing several Holiday Food and Fund Drive (HFFD) updates: Triple impact! New for 2025, your generosity will have triple the impact! In previous years, Tibi McCann and Eric Jensen have joined the UC Santa Cruz effort by doubling the impact up to […]
Greetings, UC Santa Cruz Students, Faculty, and Staff!
In this email, we’ll be sharing several Holiday Food and Fund Drive (HFFD) updates:
- The new “triple impact” opportunity for 2025
- How to give
- Why to give (especially this year)
- How to receive
Triple impact!
New for 2025, your generosity will have triple the impact! In previous years, Tibi McCann and Eric Jensen have joined the UC Santa Cruz effort by doubling the impact up to the first $50,000 raised at UCSC. This year, they are going to triple your impact, which means $1 feeds 3 people for 1 day! That’s an amazing way to put your money to work. If this sounds too good to be true, find out how this is possible.
How to give
Every year, the Staff Advisory Board leads UC Santa Cruz’s participation in Second Harvest Food Bank’s Holiday Food and Fund Drive. The HFFD is special because 100% of your donations go directly to purchasing food for those who need it!
Here’s how you can give:
- Students can donate here until Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. There are just 10 more days to give your extra Slug Points, Banana Bucks, and Flexi Dollars!
- Employees, retirees, and everyone can donate here until Thursday, January 15, 2026. So, you can donate in both this tax year and the next tax year during this same HFFD.
- If you’d like to set up a sub-team within the unified UC Santa Cruz team, please reach out to Nathan McCall (nmccall@ucsc.edu) and he can create one for you right away.
Why give?
- There is unprecedented local need in 2025, due to the federal SNAP funding situation, and Santa Cruz County governments recognize Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB) as the way to meet our local need.
- The SHFB contributes directly to UC Santa Cruz students on campus (e.g., Redwood Free Market) and indirectly to UCSC employees out in the community.
- Each year we emphasize the same campaign theme: Give What You Get. If you’re able, we encourage you to give enough money so someone else gets to eat healthy food all year, just like you! Based on the standard model of $1 feeds 1 person for 1 day, the amounts are:
- Single-person household: $365
- Two-person household: $730
- Three-person household: $1,095
- Four-person household: $1,460
- BONUS: Count your pets in your calculation! :^)
This year, will you Give What You Get?
How to receive
As always, if you or someone you know is in a position to receive food assistance, please start on this web page. In the same way that food goes through seasons, each of us also go through different seasons of giving and receiving. Be sure to fully participate in whatever season you’re in now.
Thank you for feeding hope,
The SAB Holiday Food & Fund Drive Team