MOBILE FOOD PANTRY CAMPAIGN
Too many children and families living in rural San Diego do not have enough food for three daily nutritious meals. Family members commonly forego at least one meal per day in order to stretch their meager weekly food supply. To better serve distant and scattered rural communities in North and East San Diego County, it is crucial for Feeding America San Diego to design an efficient and streamlined mobile pantry distribution system.
Through a recently awarded matching grant, we are positioned to secure an environmentally-friendly hybrid mobile food pantry to serve those in rural county areas. The truck we have selected has a payload capacity of 15,000 pounds, an extra 5,000 pounds of capacity than the largest truck in our fleet. With 5,000 additional pounds of capacity and hybrid technology, we can reduce the number of reloading trips the truck must make to the warehouse, lower fuel costs, and significantly reduce carbon emissions. Some of the rural stops are more than 20 miles apart, and most of them are more than 30 to 40 miles from our warehouse.
A hybrid vehicle makes better economic and environmental sense for regular distributions over such long distances, and the vehicle’s bay doors will decrease loading and unloading times at the warehouse and at mobile pantry stops. A refrigerated vehicle like this truck will also make it possible for us to move and distribute a higher volume of perishable items, which will raise the nutritive value of the food our community members receive.
A mobile food pantry will bring us closer to our goal of serving all San Diegans who are food insecure. Matching donations will allow us to secure the mobile food pantry.
Please donate today and help us reach our goal by August 31, 2010. Your gift of any size makes all the difference in the world to a child who is hungry.