Agency Partners

Overview

Thank you for your interest in becoming an Agency Partner* with Feeding San Diego. Feeding San Diego works with hundreds of Agency Partners to distribute fresh, nutritious food throughout San Diego County.

If you would like to apply to become a partner, please confirm that your organization meets the following eligibility criteria before filling out a consideration form.

Please also note that at this time, we are only onboarding agencies for the food rescue program. As part of the food rescue program, you’d need to coordinate food pickups. If you are interested in other Feeding San Diego programs, like receiving a delivery, you can still complete the consideration form. We recommend checking back regularly to see when applications are open again.

After your form is submitted and we have determined the program you are interested in is accepting new partners, your organization will be required to participate in an onsite monitoring visit and our onboarding training. The entire process typically takes 2-4 months from application submission to your first food distribution. If you are placed on the interest list this process can take longer.

*Are you a current partner looking for resources? Please explore our Partner Portal.

Requirements

Before applying please be sure to read the following Partnership Requirements.

Your organization must:

  • Be led by someone who is not receiving food from the distribution program
  • Be an IRS recognized non-profit organization or church
  • Be incorporated for the purpose of serving the needy, ill, or infants (minor children)
  • Be willing and able to pay any fees associated with partnership
  • Be a San Diego-based organization with all food being distributed within San Diego County
  • Not charge for food nor be reimbursed, compensated, or require services in exchange for food
  • Not redistribute product to other non-partner organizations
  • Not discriminate for any reason
  • Not be an entity of a municipality (e.g., a School, Hospital or Prison)
  • Have been operating an organized and consistent pantry or soup kitchen or have an operation model for distribution planned
  • Have adequate storage for food. Feeding San Diego prefers food storage facilities to be in commercial buildings
  • Have a current Safe Food Handling Certification*

*Feeding San Diego does offer food handler certification courses, however, we cannot start a distribution until this criterion is fulfilled.

Getting Started

1. Complete the consideration form
Apply Now
2. Submit the following required documents
  • 501c3 & Articles of Incorporation (if non-profit)
  • If you are a church, please refer to this document for additional information on what is required
  • Board of Directors
  • Food Handler Certification
3. Feeding San Diego will review your application and send a follow-up email
4. If your organization meets the eligibility requirements, a Partnerships Coordinator will send:
  • Our Partnership Basics Onboarding Video and Quiz to complete
  • A pre-monitoring visit form where you can select the days and times for your Partnerships Coordinator to visit (preferably during your distribution)
5. After the onsite visit, a Partnerships Coordinator will follow up with any compliance changes that need to be addressed
6. Once all compliance issues are resolved, the agency will be sent an Agency Agreement, we encourage you to review this agreement before beginning the onboarding process to ensure your organization is open to following these guidelines
Review Agency Agreement
7. After your agreement is signed, the Partnership Coordinator will help you determine how to access food from Feeding San Diego
8. If you are interested in our Agency Empowered Food Rescue program, there will be additional training required
9. The Partnership Coordinator will assist your organization every step of the way

If your agency meets the above requirements, please complete this application.

FAQs

An agency partner is an organization that distributes food to participants regularly (monthly, bi-monthly, weekly, or multiple days per week). The agency partner is responsible for providing the space, volunteers or staff, equipment, and distribution plan. Feeding San Diego will help provide support and food, but the agency is ultimately responsible for its operations and funding.

Interested organizations can complete an application and attach the following documents; an IRS letter verifying 501c3 status, Articles of Incorporation, and a Board of Directors list.

We require at least one agency representative to have a current food handler’s certificate and be present during all food distributions. We host monthly pieces of training for our partners.

We also require logs for pest control and cold storage temperatures but will get partners set up with that during onboarding. These are collected annually.

A monitoring visit will be conducted as part of onboarding and annually to continue the partnership. These visits help our team confirm food safety measures are in place and help us understand your organization’s unique distribution, strengths, and challenges so we can better support you.

There are three programs agencies can access food through.

  1. Food Rescue is a program that pairs agency partners directly with one of our 600 donors. Depending on the agency partners’ needs and capacity, this may be weekly pick-ups from a nearby grocery store or the opportunity to accept one-time donations for various donors.
    1. This program requires training, some equipment provided by FSD, your own staff/volunteer driver(s), and vehicle(s).
    2. Cold storage is required for a majority of donations, including weekly pick-ups. However, some one-time donations of only dry goods are occasionally available for agencies without cold storage.
  2. Order directly from our distribution center of produce and dry goods either by pick up or by delivery
    1. Delivery or pick-up requests will be reviewed based on location, households served, delivery/pick-up frequency, and partner distribution days.
    2. Agency partners will need staff/volunteers to glean produce before distribution.
  3. Our Mobile Marketplace program allows agency partners to access produce closer to their locations. A variety of produce is sent to four areas each week for agency partners to access for free. This program is meant for smaller agency partners or partners supplementing produce based on food rescue donations.

Agency partners can access food from up to all three programs. However, delivery or pick-up approval depends on our capacity.

You can order food through Agency Express for a fee. How much food you receive will depend on what type of partner you are and how much budget you have. Typically, there are dry goods, rescued items, and produce available. The amount of food provided is also based on the monthly household numbers you are serving.

Our team will do our best to find donors that fit your agency’s capacity and needs depending on nearby donors’ current schedules. If we are not currently working with a donor you would like to match with; we are open to relationships with new donors.

Feeding San Diego shares our agency partners seeking volunteers with our regular volunteer base through Golden. Please reach out to your coordinator if you would like to learn more. The application is above under the Volunteer Recruitment and Management tab. We also encourage you to post volunteer shifts on other platforms such as Volunteer Match and Hands-On San Diego.

The San Diego Hunger Colation has compiled this map of nutrition insecurity in San Diego. They define nutrition insecurity as someone who requires assistance in getting three nutritious meals per day; this includes those who may have to make difficult tradeoffs between food, medical care, housing, and other necessities.