Feeding San Diego Receives $14,000 Donation from The Darden Foundation
SAN DIEGO – Feeding San Diego announces a $14,000 grant from The Darden Foundation to assist its efforts to provide help to people facing hunger. The generous unrestricted grant will allow Feeding San Diego to allocate funds in areas the community needs the most.
“One in eight people struggle with hunger in San Diego County, including one in six children,” said Vince Hall, CEO of Feeding San Diego. “Hunger doesn’t discriminate, and there are many children, families, veterans, and seniors who turn to us for help. The Darden Foundation donation will go a long way to help us solve hunger in our county.”
Feeding San Diego works every day to close the meal gap and provide healthy food for San Diegans. With generous support from organizations like The Darden Foundation, Feeding San Diego is building a decentralized, robust food recovery system to capture food every single day from where it would be wasted to get it to families in need. We partner with 250 nonprofit organizations in almost every neighborhood in the county who operate food distributions on our behalf, serving 63,000 children, seniors, veterans, and families every week.
“The Darden Foundation grant will help us cover the costs for acquiring fresh produce,” said Hall. “Produce is one of the most expensive foods for people struggling with hunger to acquire, and it’s one of the largest expenses in our budget every year. Last year, more than half the food we provided was fresh produce. This is part of our commitment to not just feed San Diego, but to nourish San Diego.”
The Darden Foundation’s grant will provide 140,000 pounds of produce, which will take Feeding San Diego a long way towards its produce distribution goal of more than 10 million produce pounds this fiscal year. It will also help Feeding San Diego continue to offer a wide variety of produce selections at its distributions. This helps people try new and different fruits and vegetables to improve their own personal health.
The Darden Foundation has made a commitment to supporting families facing food insecurity in communities across the United States. This commitment to help is demonstrated through their partnership with Feeding America and its network of 200 hunger-relief organizations across the nation. Feeding America has worked alongside The Darden Foundation for six years in the fight to end hunger. Because of their ongoing support, the Feeding America network has been able to provide even more nutritious meals to families in need.
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July 26, 2018
About Feeding San Diego
Feeding San Diego is the leading hunger-relief organization in the county, providing 25.2 million meals in the last year to San Diegans struggling with hunger. Feeding San Diego provides food and resources to a network of more than 250 distribution partners serving 63,000 children, families, and seniors each week. Focused on healthy food, education, and advocacy, Feeding San Diego is building a hunger-free and healthy San Diego through innovative programs and collaborative partnerships.
About Darden Restaurants and The Darden Foundation
Darden is a restaurant company featuring a portfolio of differentiated brands that include Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and Eddie V’s. Our people equal our success, and we are proud to employ 180,000 team members in more than 1,700 restaurants. Together, we create memorable experiences for 380 million guests each year in communities across North America. The Darden Foundation works to bring to life our spirit of service through its philanthropic support of charitable organizations across the country. Since 1995, The Darden Foundation has awarded more than $90 million in grants to non-profit organizations such as Feeding America, National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) and American Red Cross. For more information, please visit www.darden.com.
