Feeding San Diego awards new food rescue van to Bread of Life rescue mission

Feeding San Diego awarded Bread of Life Rescue Mission, an Oceanside-based community partner, a new food rescue van to enable the organization to rescue more food to solve hunger in North County. With this van, the organization will be able to rescue surplus food from local grocery stores and other donors that would otherwise go to waste. The cost of the specially equipped food rescue van was $65,000.

“Bread of Life Rescue Mission is an incredible community partner who is working to capture more nutritious food before it goes to waste and get it to people in need in North County,” said Vince Hall, CEO of Feeding San Diego. “Right now, with the coronavirus pandemic, it’s more important than ever to come together as a community and help each other.”

“This van is going to allow Bread of Life to continue to love our neighbors and reach out to more neighbors in our community. We are so thankful and proud to partner with Feeding San Diego,” said Tim Yzaguirre, Executive Director at Bread of Life Rescue Mission.

Feeding San Diego is on a mission to connect every person facing hunger with nutritious meals by maximizing food rescue. Through a previously announced $500,000 grant from CalRecycle, Feeding San Diego was able to fund the purchase of this van and other capital equipment necessary for food rescue and distribution programs.

San Diego Assemblymember Brian Maienschein authored legislation to create the grant program because food waste is a leading generator of methane and carbon dioxide emissions from landfills. California is working to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. “Reducing methane emissions by keeping edible food out of our landfills is an important step to help California combat climate change,” said Assemblymember Brian Maienschein.