The above is a picture from our first distribution
A Food Bank is Born
As the one of the newest food banks in the Feeding America network, Feeding America San Diego’s very first distribution occurred in the parking lot of one of our local partner agencies – The San Diego Rescue Mission – on October 9th, 2007. A few weeks after our initial distribution, San Diego County was hit with huge fire storms that displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals. Within the very first week of the fire Feeding America San Diego secured and delivered 27 truckloads of emergency supplies i.e. food, water, and other grocery related items totaling over 515,000 pounds of product to benefit the evacuees, firefighters and volunteers.
All of the food and other emergency supplies were obtained from outside of San Diego County with help from the Feeding America national office and other Feeding America’s member food banks. Locally, we partnered with the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Father Joe’s Villages, Catholic Charities, Rock Church, San Diego Rescue Mission, Homeland Security, FEMA (locally and in Washington DC), City of San Diego, County of San Diego and other non-profit agencies located in more rural parts of the county most devastated by the fires in order to reach those in need.
Upon the request of the San Diego Foundation, we responded to the hard-hit La Jolla Indian Reservation. In addition to supplying emergency food for the local residents of the reservation, we provided or arranged for refrigerated trailers and pallets in which to store the donations they received. We additionally distributed a trailer load of prime horse feed to Campo and Ramona for the starving horses. This truck load of horse feed was above and beyond our mission to feed the hungry; to advocate; to educate and consequently is not included in any of the previous totals mentioned.
Finally, when Qualcomm Stadium began closing its relief operations, Feeding America San Diego assisted by redirecting valuable relief supplies to other non-profits located in San Diego County. In response to our fire relief efforts the Mayor of San Diego Jerry Sanders was quoted as saying…
"The City of San Diego thanks Feeding America San Diego for their fast action and great work during the recent wildfires. Their compassionate effort truly made an impact in our recovery."
Feeding America San Diego accomplished all of this with just two employees – without a truck, a forklift, a pallet jack or even a warehouse. In February of 2008, Feeding America San Diego moved into a 30,000 square foot warehouse to better serve families in need living in San Diego County. Since then Feeding America San Diego has increased their emergency food distribution to become the largest distributor of donated food in San Diego County and one of the most efficient non-profits in the nation.