Retail Donations Hit All Time High in May

Feeding San Diego relies on contributions from national and local partnerships to source product.

Providing nearly half of the food distributed by FSD, our Food Rescue program diverts quality food heading for the landfill to serve clients. FSD partners with more than 180 local grocery stores and retailers to rescue an average of nearly a million pounds of fresh food each month. Produce, dairy, baked goods, meats and other perishable items that would otherwise go to waste are generously donated and picked up directly by our partner agencies.

FSD also reclaims damaged food items from grocery stores, such as dented cans, torn cereal boxes and other safe nutritious food items. Rather than going to the landfill, these items are received, sorted, cleaned and safety checked by volunteers at the distribution center. Ralphs, Albertsons, Big Lots and Walgreens currently supply reclamation.

On average, Feeding San Diego rescues just over one million pounds of food each month (last year’s monthly average was approximately 1,020,520 pounds) but this past May we received our highest month of retail donations on record – 1,114,814 pounds!  To put those numbers in perspective, the retail donations in May provided 929,011 meals for those in need.

Although we generally see an increase in donations during the summer due to influx of fresh produce in the Southern California market, we also were very excited to welcome a new grocery chain to the Food Rescue program. In late April, Aldi opened three stores in our service area, one in Vista and two in Imperial Valley. Together, the three stores combined donated over 51,000 pounds in May.

With over 70 billion pounds of food wasted in our nation each year, we’re honored to be making a dent in food waste while helping the more than 400,000 San Diegans struggling with hunger. We hope to continue having record-breaking months and want to extend our gratitude to our retail partners for making hunger-relief a priority.