This month, the San Diego Food Bank increased our fleet of Mobile Food Pantries to expand our emergency food assistance programs to rural East County communities including Boulevard, Campo, Manzanita and Jamul.Several rural East County communities lack easy access to nearby food retailers offering nutritious foods. These communities are known as ‘food deserts’. By expanding our services to rural East County communities, the Food Bank will provide fresh, healthy and nutritious foods to families facing food insecurity.The expansion of our existing programs to East County communities is due to generous funding from San Diego Gas & Electric and our partnership with the Southern Indian Health Council.”The support of San Diego Gas & Electric along with community partner, Southern Indian Health Council, has been amazing,” said the Food Bank’s Vice President of Operations, Vanessa Ruiz.
“SDG&E generously provided the Food Bank with funding to purchase a brand new Mobile Food Pantry truck thus enabling our team to expand our services and SIHC helped us find distribution sites in the rural parts of the county. It’s because of partnerships like these that we are able to continue meeting the increased need in the community while finding ways to help fill gaps to make it easier for all families to access food.”
The new Mobile Pantry food distribution sites will serve hundreds of families every month.