The San Diego Food Bank has helped over 600,000 people since the start of the pandemic, with sites all over San Diego County. On Friday they opened their 35th "super pantry," a high volume drive-through food distribution site.
The new site is at 9151 Rehco Road in the Miramar area. It will be open for the general public Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to noon. People are welcome to drive up or walk up to receive assistance.
Every Friday, the Food Bank will hold a special food drive targeting a specific part of the population.
Volunteers from Holiday Bowl RedCoats and the San Diego Tourism Authority partnered with the Food Bank for the opening day distribution for local hospitality workers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic, a group the Food Bank has reached out to before at other locations.
RELATED: Feeding San Diego Distributes Food For Hospitality Workers
Food Bank President and CEO James Floros said the new Miramar super pantry is part of the organization's Phase Four COVID response.
“We have a really strong distribution network of 500 non-profit partners and 200 other distribution sites. We augmented our supply chain and added the super pantries, tripling the size of our mobile pantry to make sure that we could hit those gaps in service,” he said.
The Food Bank has already distributed more than 59-million pounds of food throughout the pandemic. But Floros acknowledged some people may be reluctant to get help.
"Our message is that there is plenty of food,” he said. “People can come, get the food their family needs with complete client dignity.”
