Frequently Asked Questions
Explore Feeding San Diego’s frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to learn more about our organization.
If you don’t see your answers below, you can reach out to info@feedingsandiego.org or fill out our contact form at the bottom of the page for more support.
General Questions
Feeding San Diego is a nonprofit organization that focuses on food rescue and hunger relief. Our mission is to connect every person facing hunger with nutritious meals by maximizing food rescue.
Feeding San Diego is a partner food bank of Feeding America.
Feeding America is the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. The Feeding America network includes 200 partner food banks, food pantries, and meal programs that work together to provide food to people facing hunger in the United States.
Feeding San Diego operates as an independent nonprofit organization within the network. Feeding America provides our organization with food, funds, and capacity building so that we can serve more of our neighbors facing hunger across the United States.
Feeding San Diego’s first food distribution was held on October 9, 2007, in the parking lot of the San Diego Rescue Mission. Several weeks later, San Diego County experienced disastrous firestorms that displaced hundreds of thousands. Within the first week of the fires starting, with only two employees, Feeding San Diego secured 515,000 pounds of emergency supplies, including food, water, and other grocery items, and distributed them to evacuees, firefighters, and volunteers.
Feeding San Diego is a female-founded organization. Founder Gwendolyn Sontheim remains the board chair today.
Food rescue, also called food recovery, food salvage, or food redistribution, is when we rescue edible food that would otherwise go to waste and distribute it to the community.
Feeding San Diego rescues high-quality, surplus food from food donors like farms and grocery stores. Then, we work with community partners who distribute the food to people facing hunger. Learn more about how food rescue works.
We see an average of two million pounds of food move through our distribution center each month.
On top of that, our agency partners rescue an additional one million pounds of food per month. This food never comes through our distribution center. Instead, it goes directly to community partners and into the hands of people facing hunger.
Feeding San Diego provides food to any community members experiencing food insecurity. Our programs and initiatives aim to provide nutritious food to:
- Children
- Families
- Seniors
- College students
- Military families
- Veterans
- People facing homelessness
- Other underserved populations
The USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life. Basically, someone who is food insecure does not consistently have enough food to lead a healthy life. Check out our blog post about common myths about food insecurity to learn more.
Food insecurity is a symptom of ineffective structures and systems, not an individual weakness. Anyone can experience food insecurity when put into a situation that keeps them from accessing the food they need and when systems designed to support them fail to do so
Causes vary but may include:
- Health issues preventing people from working
- Job losses
- Cutting work hours to care for a family member or provide childcare
- Salaries not stretching as far due to high inflation rates
These are only a few examples of the many reasons someone may need food assistance.
Feeding San Diego’s board of directors is made up of 12 individuals who volunteer their time and leadership. You can view our board of directors here.
Frequently Asked Questions about Donating
You can donate online or through the mail by sending a check payable to:
Feeding San Diego
PO Box 501910
San Diego, CA 92150-1910
Your funds are directly invested to rescue and purchase food to support the community. Every dollar donated to Feeding San Diego helps provide two meals.
Yes! When you visit our online donation page, you can select “Dedicate my donation in honor or in memory of someone” and fill out the form provided.
Maybe! Thousands of companies match gifts provided to charitable organizations. You can check whether your company matches gifts using our double the donation search function.
Anyone can start a fundraiser for Feeding San Diego! You can start a fundraiser here. Create a fundraiser, pick a fundraising goal, and share! You can also fundraise for us in-app on Facebook or Instagram.
Yes! Donating stock or mutual funds is a great way to make a tax-savvy gift and increase your impact on families experiencing hunger. We partner with DonateStock to make it easy to gift your appreciated stocks and help end hunger in San Diego County. Donate stocks today.
Frequently Asked Questions about Volunteering
Yes! We always need volunteers to support our mission. We have a range of volunteer opportunities. Learn more about volunteering here.
In the distribution center, all volunteers must be six years of age or older to participate. At food distributions in the community, all volunteers must be fourteen years of age or older to participate.
All volunteers fifteen years of age or younger must have a chaperone over the age of 18.
While we do accept court-ordered volunteers, a Volunteer Manager must approve all court-ordered volunteers before they sign up for any volunteer shifts. Before being cleared, no hours will count toward the needed service letter.
Only Feeding San Diego’s food sorting shifts are eligible for court-ordered or diversion program hours.
Yes! Feeding San Diego’s volunteer team is happy to sign service logs and provide service letters to our incredible volunteers.
You can view your progress at any time on our volunteer platform, Golden Volunteer. You can help ensure these hours are accurate by consistently signing in and out of your volunteer shift.
Most schools and organizations accept our service logs. However, if you need a Service Letter, please contact our team at volunteersd@feedingsandiego.org at least one week before needed.
Yes! Group volunteers are welcome year-round. Volunteer Group Reservations are for groups of five or more. Learn more about volunteering as a group.
Frequently Asked Questions about Donating Food
Yes. We accept food donations from individuals and businesses, including grocery stores, retailers, manufacturers, food distributors, convenience stores, restaurants, caterers, and hotels.
The first step to organizing a food drive for Feeding San Diego is to fill out our Food Drive Request Form here. Once you do so, our team can provide you with information about the items we need most and tips for making your food drive as successful as possible. Learn more about starting a food drive.
Donating money is the best way for individuals to support Feeding San Diego’s mission. Buying a single can of food at the grocery store costs more than a dollar. Our food rescue model means that every dollar you donate to Feeding San Diego helps provide two meals to the community. While food drives and donating food are still great ways to help, we recommend considering donating funds or starting a fundraiser instead!
The first step to joining Feeding San Diego’s network of food donors is to sign up for MealConnect, an app that makes it easy for food producers to donate excess food to Feeding San Diego. If you have questions about how to get started, you can reach out to our food rescue team at fooddonation@feedingsandiego.org.
Yes! Feeding San Diego has the tools to make compliance with SB 1383 easy for your business. We can arrange regular pick-ups of surplus food and assist with reporting to make sure your logs meet requirements. Learn more about complying with SB 1383.
We do! We currently rescue food from more than 200 Starbucks stores throughout San Diego County as part of the Starbucks FoodShare food donation program. Since our partnership began in 2016, Feeding San Diego has distributed more than three million pounds of surplus food from Starbucks stores throughout San Diego County.
Frequently Asked Questions about Receiving Food
Feeding San Diego offers food assistance at sites throughout San Diego County. You can find a location near you on our Find Food Map.
Yes, many of our food distributions are walk-up distributions. We recommend bringing your own bags and a cart to help carry the food. You can find a food distribution near you on our Find Food Map.
If you are unable to reach a food distribution, you can contact our CalFresh team to see if you qualify for grocery assistance: 858.863.6635.
For more information about other resources, you can call 2-1-1 or visit 211sandiego.org.
No, we do not provide baby formula. However, you can call 2-1-1 or visit 211sandiego.org to find out where you can receive formula and other resources.
You do not need to register for a Feeding San Diego distribution. However, Feeding San Diego works with a variety of community partners. Different distributions have different rules for receiving food. You can find more information about distribution sites on our Find Food Map, as well as contact information to confirm your eligibility.
Still have questions?
Reach out to us using the form below. A member of our team will be in touch once we process your request.
