In Six Months, the Together Tour Has Served over 56,000 San Diegans

Published On: July 8th, 2021By Categories: Must Read, Resources3.1 min read

Back in February, the Together Tour was just an idea. Our team thought: how can we do more to support our community during the pandemic? We envisioned a traveling series of food distributions that provide food to thousands of people in a few short hours. Six months later, the series of large-scale drive-through food distributions has provided food assistance to over 56,000 San Diegans throughout San Diego County. It’s an accomplishment that has been made possible by you: our supporters, volunteers, and donors.   

Volunteer leader holds California flag at Feeding San Diego distribution

A New Way to Serve San Diegans Facing Hunger

Feeding San Diego’s flexible decentralized model has meant that for the past 14 years, we work solely with our partners to get food out into the community. We are a hunger relief organization because we source rescued food and connect it directly with partners to distribute, keeping much less food in our distribution center than a traditional food bank. With the Together Tour, our organization took on the challenge of hosting our own food distributions, and not just any food distributions. Together Tour distributions are large-scale and can serve over 1,000 households.  

The operations and programs teams jumped at the chance to facilitate our own food distributions that would serve so many San Diegans, in addition to the over 300 partners we work with on a regular basis. What started as only two sites has now grown to an initiative that includes seven sites from Fallbrook to Chula Vista. Through 26 food distributions since February 2021, 835,550 pounds of food have been provided to the community. Starting this month, an additional site will be added at Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Escondido to serve another hunger hot spot. 

Fresh produce in back of car Woman attends Feeding San Diego free food distribution

The Impact of the Together Tour

The efforts of everyone involved have not gone unnoticed. At each stop, we are fortunate enough to meet some of the people driving through. We met Soledad at a Together Tour stop at Pechanga Arena in May, and she told us that she was still impacted by the pandemic: “I’ve been coming to this distribution for a while. I’m going more for the vegetables and the fruit, for the kids. It has helped a lot. When all this started I wasn’t able to go back to work. I had two jobs and I wasn’t able to go to either one. I’m now very minimal on one and the other one I haven’t gone back. The pandemic isn’t over for me yet. My daughter has barely gone back to school. For us, it’s barely starting to improve. I’m very grateful and thankful to all of you.”

Volunteers gather for instructions at Feeding San Diego food distribution

Why It Matters 

According to the San Diego Hunger Coalition, over one million people in San Diego County are at risk of experiencing hunger, including over 280,000 children. As the economy continues to recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic, those hit hardest continue to need assistance. As of mid-April 2021, the region’s unemployment rate was 6.7%. This means 102,100 people are out of work according to State of California Employment Development Department. Those who relied on Feeding San Diego’s services prior to the pandemic experienced greater setbacks during the past year and a half and remain vulnerable even after the economy has reopened.  

Together Tour sites will continue to operate through the end of the year. To volunteer at an upcoming Together Tour food distribution, click here. To view a list of all upcoming Together Tour distribution sites, click here.