Orange County legal community raises more than $172K for food bank

Food from the bar2
Orange County's legal community raised a record $172,103 in the 9th annual Food from the Bar campaign for Second Harvest Food Bank, with Minyard Morris receiving the highest award as the top fundraiser at the Rutan & Tucker-hosted awards dinner Thursday in Irvine.

The June campaign, which combines fundraising through a virtual food drive platform with volunteer hours, aims to combat food insecurity among Orange County residents. Second Harvest distributes food to an average of 442,000 neighbors monthly through 394 partner locations countywide.

Since launching in 2017, Food from the Bar has raised more than $500,000.

"Food insecurity rates have reached alarmingly high levels, approaching those we had seen during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Second Harvest CEO Claudia Keller. "Currently, one in ten individuals in Orange County faces food insecurity, and this percentage is rising more rapidly here than across California as a whole."

Keller attributed much of the problem to the County's high cost of living and credited organizational awareness for helping the food bank serve those experiencing food insecurity.

The Rockstar Rainmaker awards for highest fundraising went to Orange County Trial Lawyers Association (large organization), Judicate West (mid-size) and Houser LLP (small organization).

Mark Minyard of Minyard Morris earned the Rockstar "Rangler" award for outstanding campaign coordination.

"This is something we, as a community, should all focus on," Minyard said. "Nobody should go without food in today's world."

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth LLP captured the Rockstar Rookie award for first-year participants based on per-capita fundraising.

Var Fox of Judicate West received the Raising the Bar award for largest individual donation. Edwards Lifesciences won the Rockstar Voluntarius award for volunteer hours per capita.

Co-title sponsors Manly, Stewart & Finaldi and Minyard Morris led this year's sponsors, joined by Judicate West, Rutan & Tucker, CDF Labor Law, Dorsey & Whitney and the Orange County Bar Association Family Law Section.

The campaign's advisory board includes Var Fox and Melissa Gorin of Judicate West, Mark Minyard of Minyard Morris, Bill Schaal of Rutan & Tucker and John Manly of Manly Stewart & Finaldi.

Second Harvest Food Bank operates in collaboration with law firms, houses of worship, schools, colleges, senior centers, shelters and transitional housing facilities. The organization distributed 35.8 million pounds of food during fiscal year 2023-2024.

The food bank's 40-acre Harvest Solutions Farm in Irvine, launched in August 2021 through partnerships with Solutions for Urban Agriculture and UC South Coast Research & Extension Center, produces 50,000-60,000 pounds of produce weekly.