Answering Your Questions about Food for Food Pantry Donations: What to Donate, How to Donate, and Where the Food Goes
At Feeding San Diego, we accept food donations from the community during our normal business hours. However, it’s not as simple as pulling the almost-expired cans from your cupboards and dropping them off. For those who wish to donate food to food pantry visitors, there are a few important things to consider.
Types of Food Donations
There are two main types of food donations we see at Feeding San Diego. One is donations by individual donors. Often, community members start food drives and gather donations. These donations are dropped off at our Sorrento Valley headquarters and then sorted by volunteers. If this is the type of food pantry donation you want to make, read on to learn about food drives and what to donate.
The other type of food donations is from food business owners, such as manufacturers, grocery stores, and growers. These donations are usually larger and are arranged by our food sourcing team. If you are a food business with surplus food, you can learn more about donating on our Donate Food page.
Food from a food drive
What Food to Donate to Feeding San Diego
The short answer is: non-perishable foods. Dry goods, canned foods, and other shelf-stable items can all be donated at our Sorrento Valley headquarters. Our most needed items are:
- Ready-to-eat meals like canned soup or pasta
- Meal ingredients like Hamburger Helper
- Cooking oils, condiments, and spices
- Canned protein like tuna, chicken, and spam
- Peanut butter
- Cereal
Please note that we cannot accept perishable food or items in glass jars. Pop-top cans are preferred.
We do have many partners who can accept fresh food. You can use our Find Food Map to locate a partner near you and ask them whether they accept perishable food donations.
Starting a Food Drive
There are two types of food drives you can start to support Feeding San Diego: virtual and traditional food drives.
Traditional Food Drives
A traditional food drive involves collecting canned food and other non-perishable items. You may set up a bin at a local business or encourage your friends and family to drop off items at your house. We also have cardboard boxes available at our distribution center that you can use to collect food.
Once you have completed your food drive, please deliver the items to Feeding San Diego. We cannot pick up food donations.
How to Start a Traditional Food Drive
The first step is to connect with our team at Feeding San Diego. You can complete our request form to get started. We recommend focusing on one of our most-needed items, such as peanut butter, to make a bigger impact on the community. Make sure to promote your food drive to friends and family once you start. We have a flyer you can use while collecting donations.
Learn more about traditional food drives.
Virtual Food Drives
With a virtual food drive, you collect funds online instead of physical nonperishables. Because we work with food manufacturers, retailers, and farmers, every dollar donated to Feeding San Diego helps provide the ingredients for two full meals to the community. Think of it this way: a can of beans at the grocery store can cost about a dollar. That same dollar can transform into two full meals when donated to Feeding San Diego!
You can join Feeding San Diego’s virtual food drive here.
You can also add fundraising to your traditional food drive. Some people may not want to purchase and donate food, but still want to support your efforts. Offer them the opportunity to donate funds instead by starting a fundraiser!
A tote filled with food gathered by a food drive
How to Drop Off Your Food for Food Pantry Donations
Once you’ve collected all your donations, you can deliver them to Feeding San Diego’s Distribution Center in Sorrento Valley, located at 9477 Waples St., Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92121. We accept donations Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Our team will provide a donation receipt for tax purposes.
As a reminder, food donations must be dropped off. We cannot pick up food drives.
What Happens to Food Donations after They Arrive?
All donated food we receive is sorted before being distributed to the community. Our volunteers sort and glean everything, ensuring it is safe to eat and helping prepare it for distribution. Individual donations, for example, a single can of beans, go to the Feeding San Diego Marketplace. Multiple items of the same type are bundled into pallets and used at our food distributions throughout the county.
Your Food for Food Pantry Donations
Hopefully, this blog post answered all your food for food pantry donation questions! If not, you can email info@feedingsandiego.org, and our team will be happy to help with any specific questions.
