Donation To Help Local Food Bank

SAN JOSE (KCBS) - The Second Harvest Food Bank is going to be able to provide a lot more meals in the future, thanks to a hefty donation from SunPower and its parent company Cypress Semiconductor.

The companies donated more than a million dollars worth of solar panels to Second Harvest's headquarters in San Jose.

"SunPower has a great opportunity at our core as a company to build a great company and we believe change the world," said SunPower CEO Tom Werner. "We think one of the ways we can change the world is to give back and Second Harvest is a great organization at giving back. So we get to accomplish our mission as a company."

Second Harvest Food Bank spokeswoman Poppy Pembroke said the solar panels will reduce their energy bill by about 50 percent.

"This is an amazing donation from Cypress and SunPower," she said. "It's going to provide an additional six million meals to our community over the life of the solar panels, which is about 25 years."

Pembroke said they can use all the help possible as they now help feed 231,000 people a month in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

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