Feeding San Diego feeding heroes in partnership with Support The Enlisted Project (STEP)
The impressive military presence in San Diego County is one of the many positive things about our region. It is a great pride point that our beautiful region is home to so many courageous men and women in uniform, and their families, who honorably serve. With over 20 installations in the county, the military is a top employer in the region, and in FY2020 the military employed over 153,000 people through the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Veteran’s Affairs.* As we all know, 2020 was a year unlike any other, and the need for extra help reached far and wide. At the start of the pandemic, we expanded our Feeding Heroes initiative, which reaches every corner of the county – on or near base, in military housing areas, and in public schools serving a high percentage of military families.
This month, we started a partnership with Support the Enlisted Project (STEP), the County of San Diego’s Veteran Nonprofit of the Year. With many schools and childcare centers still closed and unemployment rates in other sectors of the economy still high, service members and their family’s lives continue to be affected. STEP, which was established in 2012, builds financial self-sufficiency among junior active-duty enlisted members and recently discharged enlisted Veterans and their families by providing counseling, education, and grants to families facing financial crisis. They provide vital services all the time, but the pandemic brought about new needs.
“Military families have to consider a lot of different things. For those whose spouses are deployed, they’re the only caregivers in the family and extended family members might be thousands of miles away,” shares Tracy A. Owens, Programs Manager at STEP and a Navy Veteran who served for 30 years. “If kids get sick, there’s often no one to lean on. It’s really stressful for those families when their spouse isn’t here. You don’t have that extra support. That piece is missing. It can be really tough.”
Feeding San Diego will supply STEP with enough fresh food to serve 350 households at two sites in San Diego County twice a month, one in Miramar and one in Oceanside. At the start of the pandemic, STEP began hosting drive-through distributions for their clients. They initially focused on distributing other essential items like diapers, clothing and shoes. However, they began receiving calls from commands letting them know that there was a need for food. The organization got to work to provide for their clients, making sure the bags they distribute are filled with healthy and delicious food, especially produce. To meet the continued need almost a year later, they are partnering with Feeding San Diego to get fresh food on the table via their Warehouse on Wheels (WOW) distributions.
“The families are so grateful when they come through the line,” Owens said. “For them to be able to concentrate on their mission and not putting food on the table, that’s our mission.”
This new partnership makes 17 total sites that serve military and veteran communities as part of the Feeding Heroes program. To learn more and get involved, visit our program page.
*According to 2020 San Diego Military Economic Impact Report released by the San Diego Military Advisory Council
