Why Feeding San Diego Doesn’t Call Itself a Food Bank

Published On: April 23rd, 2024By Categories: Miscellaneous2.1 min read

You might be surprised to learn that Feeding San Diego doesn’t consider itself a food bank. As a hunger relief and food rescue organization, we have a similar mission to food banks. However, our methods set us apart. To understand the difference, let’s break down the difference.

What Is a Food Bank?

Feeding America defines a food bank as “a non-profit that safely stores millions of pounds of food.” Often stocked by donations from the community, food banks deliver stored food to local food programs, like food pantries. Essentially, they act like for-profit food distributors, excepted with donated food.

What Makes Feeding San Diego Different?

Feeding San Diego uses a decentralized approach. Instead of moving everything through our distribution center, we connect local nonprofit partners directly with food donors. That way, our sourcing team can choose whether or not food actually needs to come to our distribution center. Typically, we only need to store very large donations.

By staying flexible, we can keep the food fresher, speed up time to distribution, and serve more people facing hunger.

A woman standing in front of an orange Feeding San Diego van

Carolina Miller, Fallbrook Food Pantry’s programs and operations manager, with the van the pantry uses for food rescue

How Our Approach Works

There are three main stages in our approach.

  1. Analysis. The first thing we do is identify the needs of the people we serve using data. That way, we can determine the areas of the most need and mobilize our resources.
  2. Sourcing. Our sourcing process involves a combination of rescuing and purchasing food. About 92% of the food we distribute is rescued from a range of donors, including grocery stores and farms.
  3. Distribution. We distribute food in a variety of ways depending on the needs of our community. If it’s more efficient for a local partner to rescue the food directly, we coordinate pick up from the food donor by a community partner. If it makes more sense to bring food back to the distribution center, we can do that instead.

Why It Matters

While we don’t mind if people refer to us as a food bank, we’re also proud of what makes us different. Our flexibility, along with our amazing community of food donors and nonprofit partners, means we can rescue more food and serve more families facing hunger.

In need of food resources? Check our Find Food Map to find a food distribution in your area.

Want to support our mission? Donate or volunteer your time.