Feeding San Diego Supporting Youth Facing Hunger
Over 280,000 kids are currently at risk of experiencing hunger in San Diego County
This summer, Feeding San Diego is supporting youth and families in need with two specific food assistance programs, the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and School Pantry program. Both are critical to the organization’s hunger-relief services across San Diego County targeted to children as part of its “Feeding Kids” initiative. According to the San Diego Hunger Coalition, as of November 2020 more than 280,000 children in our county are at risk of experiencing hunger. SFSP and the School Pantry program provide vital support during the summer months to ensure youth are getting the nutrition they need to grow and thrive.
Feeding San Diego is providing meals to children and their families through 25 summer meal program sites that provide on average 19,000 meals weekly. The sites include recreation centers, apartment complexes, YMCA locations and other nonprofits serving youth. The organization is also operating an additional 21 school pantry sites, 17 of which are within the San Diego Unified School District, averaging 4,700 meals weekly to low-income students and their families. These school pantry sites operate in a drive-through format and are in the same location at each campus, have routine distribution schedules, and provide additional community resources. Feeding San Diego also holds hundreds of other food distributions throughout the county to provide food assistance to neighbors in need, including its large-scale food distributions open to anyone in need called the Together Tour.
When children are out of school in the summer months, Feeding San Diego’s programming kicks in. In conjunction with this programming is the Fuel for Summer fundraising campaign, which raises funds to directly support this programming.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for youth to adapt to remote learning and the isolation that came along with it. For youth who were already struggling with hunger, it has been an overall tough time,” Dan Shea, CEO of Feeding San Diego shared with GB Magazine. “We are doing our part to help families during the summer months when they need more sustenance at home. Year over year we see that this support greatly alleviates hunger for kids in San Diego County.”
Generous support for the Fuel for Summer campaign includes presenting sponsor Ford Motor Company Fund and San Diego County Ford Dealers, as well as Telos Capital Management, Wells Fargo, California Bank & Trust, and the Padres Foundation.
