Feeding San Diego Delivers 38,000 Free Summer Meals In Rural East San Diego County Through Partnership with Amazon and No Kid Hungry

Innovative home delivery pilot reached 339 children in the Mountain Empire School District as the only California food bank in a national program spanning 13 states

This summer, Feeding San Diego helped bridge the meal gap for families in rural East San Diego County, delivering more than 38,000 free meals to 146 households through the Summer Meals for Kids pilot program in partnership with Amazon and No Kid Hungry. Feeding San Diego was the only nonprofit in California to participate in the program this summer.

“Through our collaboration with Mountain Empire School District, we were able to deliver food to children living in remote areas, including Potrero, Campo, Descanso, and Pine Valley. We heard from parents that this didn’t just feed their kids, it gave them peace of mind. Families face a significant increase in their grocery bills once school lets out for the summer. Our involvement in this pilot was about far more than providing food assistance for one summer.  Our goal was to build a sustainable model we can replicate to further expand access to meals for children living in food deserts across the county,” said Feeding San Diego CEO Bob Kamensky.

Feeding San Diego identified eligible families and prepared shelf-stable meal boxes, while Amazon donated the transportation and delivery through its rural delivery network — at no cost to families or partners. Feeding San Diego’s participation was part of a national pilot that delivered more than 2 million meals to families across 13 states through 18 food bank and school district partners.

Nearly 30 million children in the U.S. rely on free breakfast and lunch during the school year, but only about 1 in 7 eligible children access traditional on-site summer meal programs. For families in rural communities, long travel distances, sparsely located meal sites, limited and costly transportation, and schedule constraints for working parents and caregivers can make reaching a site nearly impossible. In some rural counties, child food insecurity rates approach 50%.

Feeding San Diego chose to work with the Mountain Empire School District because the district did not host a congregate summer meal program at its schools this summer. While Feeding San Diego did offer weekly summer meal distribution sites in the area, factors including distance and parents’ work schedules posed barriers for many families approved for home delivery.

In 2023, the USDA introduced flexible models for summer food distribution, allowing sponsors in eligible rural areas to provide meals for pickup or home delivery at no cost — a change that opened the door to this pilot program.

“At Amazon, we believe everyone should have reliable access to nutritious food,” said Jill Slabey, senior product manager for logistics for good at Amazon. “This summer, we used the same last-mile network that delivers packages every day to bring more than 2 million meals directly to doorsteps across the country — helping local partners reach more children in the communities they serve.”

“Families in rural communities have told us that getting to a traditional summer meal site can be a real challenge,” said Samantha King, senior manager of Innovation at No Kid Hungry. “Home delivery gives communities another way to reach kids during the summer, and this pilot is helping us build a model that is practical for local partners and centered on what families need.”