Feeding San Diego and San Diego Food System Alliance Together Receive $500,000 Food Security Equity Impact Grant From Feeding America

The nation’s largest hunger-relief organization awarded funds to both organizations to continue to address the root causes of hunger and food insecurity in San Diego County  

Feeding San Diego, a partner food bank of Feeding America, has received a Food Security Equity Impact grant from Feeding America alongside local community-based organization San Diego Food System Alliance. Together, the two non-profits will use the funds to work alongside one another to continue to address the root causes of hunger and food insecurity in San Diego County. The Food Security Equity Impact Fund is part of Feeding America’s broader grantmaking strategy to intentionally support communities of color and rural communities known to be disproportionately impacted by food insecurity. It was created in March 2021 and was seeded with a $20 million donation from MacKenzie Scott. 

In total, the grant amounts to $500,000, with $425,000 going to San Diego Food System Alliance to be used in its work to create a healthy, sustainable, and just food system in San Diego County. The Alliance is currently executing its San Diego County Food Vision 2030, a shared vision, plan, and movement to cultivate a healthier, more sustainable, and more just food system in the San Diego region. The organization brought together over 3,000 people across the region—including essential food and farm workers and residents from communities most impacted by our food system—to create the vision in 2021. Feeding San Diego will use the remaining $75,000 to purchase food from small, local farmers and producers associated with the San Diego Food System Alliance.  

“It has become increasingly important to recognize that as one of the leading hunger-relief organizations in San Diego County, Feeding San Diego carries the responsibility to center our mission in the importance of equity,” said Patty O’Connor, chief supply chain officer at Feeding San Diego. “To be awarded these funds by Feeding America, alongside a forward-thinking grassroots organization like the San Diego Food System Alliance doing incredible thought leadership and community work in our community, is an example of the collaboration needed to make strides in our collective effort to end hunger and make access to fresh, nutritious food more equitable.”  

Feeding America awarded the grants to partner food banks nationwide that are geographically diverse, with urban, suburban and rural communities receiving awards. In addition, more than 90% of the community-based partners are led by people of color. 

“The root causes of food insecurity are interlinked with the dominant culture and systems which continue to perpetuate inequities, harming communities and our planet. Food banking is a system that softens the blow of our violent economic system. We are excited about this grant partnership that concretely bridges work to address immediate needs and work to reimagine systems, both around food. The philosophy of ‘food sovereignty’ offers a way forward towards an economic system rooted in care, self-determination, and reciprocity,” said Elly Brown, co-executive director of San Diego Food System Alliance. 

For more information about the Food Security Equity Impact Fund, please visit feedingamerica.org/equityimpact.