By SDCN Staff
San Diego, CA–Feeding San Diego received a $50,000 Federal Meals Program grant from Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions Foundation to support the organization’s work to help connect qualified individuals with existing federal meal programs to CalFresh.
The nonprofit has invested in growing its CalFresh team to connect with the public and help people determine if they qualify for benefits. Many times people are not even aware of these benefits and the application can be difficult to navigate. If they do qualify, the team is available to help them enroll and stay enrolled. This outreach is conducted at community events across San Diego County as well as at Feeding San Diego food distributions, focusing on hunger hot spots where people are likely to qualify.
“This generous donation from Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions Foundation Nourishing Neighbors will help Feeding San Diego address the problem of food insecurity in our community by connecting individuals in need with federal programs designed to reduce hunger,” said Dan Shea, CEO of Feeding San Diego. “We’re grateful that Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions Foundation Nourishing Neighbors are partnering with us to help ensure our neighbors have enough to eat.”
For over 15 years, Feeding San Diego has been focused on its mission to end hunger through food rescue. A major part of this work is to distribute meals in the form of nutritious food, but the non-profit also tracks CalFresh attributable meals that were achieved by successfully enrolling people in the state program, as well as keeping them in the program. While strategies have shifted over the years, CalFresh outreach has long been an important part of Feeding San Diego’s programming. According to the USDA, California consistently has one of the lowest SNAP participation rates in the country, about 70% compared with the national average of 82%. Breaking this down even further, only 59% of eligible low-income working people and 19% of eligible seniors are enrolled. In Feeding San Diego’s last fiscal year, the CalFresh team’s outreach resulted in 127,254 attributable meals.
“We’re always looking for the best ways to fight hunger in the communities we serve. By partnering with top-notch organizations like Feeding San Diego we know we can make a difference in the lives of our neighbors who are facing food insecurity issues,” said Southern California Division President Kevin Curry. “We appreciate the work of Feeding San Diego to help qualifying individuals in our neighborhoods connect with existing federal meal programs.”
Feeding San Diego is a non-profit organization on a mission to end hunger through food rescue. Established in 2007, Feeding San Diego is the leading hunger relief and food rescue organization in San Diego County and the only Feeding America affiliate in the region. Each year, the organization provides more than 35 million meals to children, families, seniors, college students, military families, and veterans in partnership with a network of 370 local charities, schools, faith communities, meal sites, and food pantries.
