Expanded Feeding San Diego Marketplace Offers Free Groceries

San Diego is a beautiful place to live, but in 2024, it’s challenging to keep up with costs here. In fact, San Diego has been ranked one of the most expensive cities to live in. Increasingly, families have to make impossible choices between paying for housing, childcare, utilities, gas, and groceries. While costs like housing and gas are fixed, food can be reduced – both in quantity and quality.

Feeding San Diego’s hunger-relief programs provide free groceries throughout the county, at pantries and food distributions. We achieve this in partnership with local charities, schools, colleges, faith communities, healthcare providers, and meal sites. One of our newest hunger-relief programs is the Feeding San Diego Marketplace. Located in Sorrento Valley, the Marketplace was recently expanded to provide a more dignified shopping experience. The result is a mini grocery store that offers free groceries to people experiencing food insecurity.

Inside the Feeding San Diego Marketplace

Ninety percent of the food that’s in the Marketplace is rescued food. That means it is donated from local and national farms, grocery stores, food manufacturers, and distributors. The food offered is surplus food that is still perfectly edible but can’t be sold for various reasons. The Marketplace remarkably demonstrates the food rescue model and how food banks support the community while lessening environmental impacts by keeping good food out of landfills.

The Early Days of the Marketplace

Originally opened in 2022, the Marketplace recently doubled in size thanks to capacity grant funding from the state of California. Now, the space has an indoor waiting room and additional coolers and shelving to house nutritious groceries. The Feeding San Diego Marketplace is located at Feeding San Diego’s headquarters in Sorrento Valley, which houses our volunteer and distribution center and staff offices.

The space was initially a breakroom for Feeding San Diego staff. However, Feeding San Diego’s Chief Operations Officer Patty O’Connor had the idea to create a space for the community instead. When people come to Feeding San Diego in need of food, they receive a prepackaged emergency food box. Now, if people come during Marketplace hours, they can shop and choose what they’d like to eat. The selection includes fresh produce, pantry staples like rice and bread, and meat.

A Vital Community Resource

The Feeding San Diego Marketplace is almost entirely run by volunteers. One of those volunteers is Isaiah De La Rosa, who is a student at UC San Diego. He is a member of California College Corps. This scholarship program helps create debt-free pathways to college while engaging students across the state in solving problems in their communities. Fellows spend a year working at a community organization in one of three priority areas: K-12 education, climate action, and food insecurity. Isiah chose food insecurity because of personal experience.

“My family always relied on access to opportunities like this, whether it be food banks or food pantries. My parents had me while they were in college, so they had to struggle balancing paying for rent, paying for childcare, and just paying for food. I have a lot of memories where we would go to the college food pantry,” Isaiah remembers.

Isaiah speaking at the grand reopening of the Feeding San Diego Marketplace

In addition to working with Feeding San Diego, Isaiah also shops at the Marketplace to help alleviate some of the financial burden he has as a college student.

“Benefitting from this pantry itself has been tremendously helpful. San Diego is very expensive, especially if you’re a student. I have to work part-time on top of this program because even despite receiving this scholarship, the cost of living is always rising. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been taking full advantage of the Marketplace. I love cooking, so just seeing all the stuff that I can use it makes me happy because I don’t have to worry about food. I don’t have to worry about paying for that on top of paying for rent, or for tuition, or anything I want to do with my friends,” he shares.

Visiting the Feeding San Diego Marketplace

Isaiah’s story is just one of many that show the importance of community resources like the Marketplace. Anyone who needs support bringing nutritious meals home by receiving free groceries is invited to shop at the Marketplace, which is open four days a week (Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.). Shoppers are encouraged to make an appointment to reserve a shopping time. Walk-ins are also welcome. People can shop at the Marketplace once a month. On average, food shoppers take home about 36 pounds, and shoppers are encouraged to bring their own bags.

You can also volunteer at the Marketplace or donate to support our programs.