The San Diego Food Bank is collecting nonperishable food and raising money at grocery stores, online and with virtual food drives.
“It's our 15th annual summer food drive,” said Julie Moore, the food bank’s director of community engagement. “We at the Food Bank run two major food drives per year, summer and holiday.”
Moore said local families are turning to the San Diego Food Bank in greater numbers this past year.
She said that’s because of the rising cost of living and summer break limiting access to free and reduced-cost school meals.
In the last year, she said they gave out a near record amount of food.
“We distributed over 53 million pounds of food out to our constituents and neighbors in need,” Moore said. “That's the second highest in our history, we've been around for 47 years.”
The only year they gave out more food was 2020 to 2021, according to Moore.
“The demand has been sustained since COVID and it's even been going upwards a little bit,” she said.
In addition, Moore said the number of seniors requesting food assistance has doubled since 2023. More working families are in need too.
“Because the cost of food has been on the rise the past few years it puts more pressure on the families. And their paycheck just doesn't extend as far as it used to,” she said.
The San Diego Unified School District says more families are using its summer meal program this year. The program provides free food to any San Diego child ages 18 and under, regardless of school enrollment.
Last year they served nearly 250,000 meals across the region through the program.
This year with three weeks left in the program they have served 340,000 meals, said Alicia Pitrone Hauser, a registered dietitian with the district’s Food & Nutrition Services program.
“We’re averaging 11,000 meals a day,” she said.
There are 70 locations through the school district where families can pick up breakfast and lunch through Aug. 1.
Funding for the program comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state of California.
San Diego Unified Food & Nutrition Services spokesperson Leslie Luna said federal budget cuts are expected to impact child nutrition programs.
