The United Samaritans Foundation serves at least 30,000 meals a month to senior citizens, veterans, families and anyone in need in Turlock, Hughson and the surrounding area through its Daily Bread lunch truck program.

To maintain their service to the county’s at-risk populations, USF relies on donations and volunteers from community organizations, businesses and individuals. Recently, Home Depot through their Team Depot Project and Romanoff Flooring renovated USF’s food pantry facility located at its Hughson location. The project valued at $9,600, was completed on July 24.

“Collaborations like this are extremely important to nonprofits, since all funds at United Samaritans Foundation, other than for a small staff and needed maintenance, are geared towards acquiring, preparing and delivering food to those with food insecurities,” said Joe Pruzzo, assistant director of USF.

The Foundation's current need is to replace two of their aging food delivery trucks, under the Road to Hope campaign. The cost is $250,000 per truck, and USF is seeking community partners to help the nonprofit reach this goal to continue its mission to nourish those in need. The Daily Bread program currently has four trucks, three which run out of the Turlock facility and one out of the Hughson facility.

“We have two trucks that are the oldest, that are little over 30 years old. So, unfortunately, they are showing signs of age, and having to get parts for them, repair them is becoming more and more costly all the time. So, if the trucks are down, we can't run the route and bring people their food to nourish them. So, therefore, then we can't fulfill our mission,” said Pruzzo.

Over the past year, USF has seen an increase in those seeking help.

“The numbers keep rising as the economy gets even more challenging. We've seen our numbers rise monthly,” he said.

Stats and facts about USF:

• 293,572 Daily Bread meals were served in 2025
• 16,031 emergency food boxes were distributed in 2025
• Of those served in 2025, 63.6% were individuals and families; 23% were seniors; 7.7% were individuals with disabilities; and 5.7% were those experiencing homelessness
• Daily Bread trucks serve 12 towns and make 52 stops
• In 2025, the most meals were served on the following routes: Turlock (32.7%), followed by Keyes/Ceres (25.6%), Hughson/Empire/Waterford/Denair (18.9%), Modesto (15.6%) and Patterson/Grayson (12.8%)

Those interested in making a donation to the Road to Hope campaign can visit: www.unitedsamaritans.org.