Feeding San Diego Receives Grant from the Vertex Foundation to Support its School Pantry Program

Grant helps fund the non-profit’s longstanding program that provides meals to students and families at elementary, middle, and high schools across the county

Feeding San Diego, the county’s leading hunger-relief and food rescue organization, has been awarded a grant from the Vertex Foundation to support the School Pantry Program. The Foundation has been a Feeding San Diego supporter since 2020 and has donated consistently to support the critical hunger-relief programs operated by Feeding San Diego, the only Feeding America partner food bank in the region. The School Pantry Program is the non-profit’s largest hunger-relief program addressing childhood food insecurity.

The program alleviates childhood hunger by providing nutritious food to children, youth, and their families at no cost onsite at about 40 local schools, which each serve an average of 120 households per distribution. This ensures consistent, reliable access to healthy food on a dependable schedule at familiar locations. The School Pantry Program operates throughout San Diego County in partnership with 13 school districts. School Pantries operate at Title 1 elementary, middle, and high schools across districts located in US Census Bureau low-moderate income tracks where a high percentage of students come from low-income families and have a high incidence of health risk and low access to food assistance.

“We are thrilled to have the continued support of the Vertex Foundation,” said Ali Colbran, senior director of development at Feeding San Diego. “With continued inflation and disparities caused by the current economy, it’s vital that programs like the School Pantry Program remain strong. This grant makes it possible for our organization to continue operating a program that supports families in our community by giving children access to nutritious foods. This directly contributes to better outcomes for the youth of San Diego County.”

The Vertex Foundation seeks to improve the lives of people with serious diseases and contribute to the communities where Vertex is located through education, innovation and health.

“At the Vertex Foundation, we aim to partner with organizations that make a positive and transformative impact in communities where we do business. No person should ever have to live in fear of going hungry and Feeding San Diego’s mission of ending hunger through food rescue and connecting people with nutritious food is vital,” said Melodie Knowlton, executive director of the Vertex Foundation.