Food Banks, Nonprofits Scramble To Address Overwhelming Food Need

Speaker 1: 00:00 The approach to feeding the homeless gathered in downtown San Diego is East village and other places in the County was for years haphazard at best, but with the state ordered lockdown amid the Corona virus pandemic. Most efforts to feed society's least fortunate have all but shutdown. Joining me is Lisa Halverstadt, a voice of San Diego reporter who covers the homeless beat throughout San Diego County. Lisa, welcome to midday. Speaker 2: 00:23 Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 00:24 We'll start by describing how these drive by makeshift setups to provide meals to the homeless. As you described them in your story, how did they work? Pre pandemic? Speaker 2: 00:34 Well, I like to describe this as almost like an underground network that was in place before that basically shut down overnight. So you had an array of groups that would help feed homeless people living on the streets. Everything from the restaurant owner who may be at the end of the night had some extra food and we'd give it to people living in his or her neighborhood. Um, or who may be quietly just said, you know, no charge for the bagel and coffee. Um, you also had a number of groups that would do organized feedings downtown where they would be handing out burritos and sandwiches on a regular basis. Um, and then just a lot of just ad hoc individuals who might see somebody panhandling or standing outside of a store who might just, you know, stop by McDonald's, go through the drive through and then hand that person some food. So this was really a pretty disorganized effort. But what I've learned is just how significant this was. Speaker 1: 01:29 And what's the situation on the streets right now? You report the few services remaining are really swamped him. Speaker 2: 01:34 Yeah. So as I said, a lot of these feeding operations and even just individual do gunners just sort of halted overnight as restaurants were shut down and people were ordered to stay at home. And so the groups that have stepped up to try to help have just been inundated. So the best example is there is a, an organization that Guerra consciousness foundation that saw that there were a lot of people who were going hungry and a lot of other operations that shut down. And so they set up this bright orange trailer, um, downtown at 16th and Imperial, um, and started doing this every week day. And what they found is they were serving about 400 people a day within a week and a half of starting this in mid March and they're serving vegan burritos. So there was just a great demand. And there have been some other groups too who just shared with me that, you know, the lines are just incredibly long. They have never seen so much interest in, in food as they're seeing now just because of all of the other things that have shut down. Speaker 1: 02:38 And what are the homeless people saying about the situation, the folks you've interviewed since the pandemic struck? Speaker 2: 02:43 It's really just so much harder for homeless people to have their basic needs met. There was one conversation that I think honestly will stick with me for the rest of my life. I met a man named Brian weaving the bat ball park area, um, last. And he told me that sometimes he and his friends who typically stay near the San Diego river area are sometimes going days without eating. Now, and really, you know, he expressed to me that he even thinks he's lost some weight in the past few weeks just because it's been so hard to get food. And he said his friends were just crying and exhausted out of hunger. Um, others I've talked to have said, you know, that a lot of people had counted on these sort of ad hoc efforts before and so people are struggling. And in the foundation that I mentioned also that had had put together this food truck, they said that they are hearing similar stories to what I'm hearing, that people are coming up to the food truck and sometimes asking for a couple burritos because they're saying that they hadn't had anything to eat for a few days. Speaker 1: 03:48 Now the city opened a temporary shelter at the convention center. Father Joe's continues to have its meal service downtown, aren't they able to fill some of this void left by the popup feeding operations? Speaker 2: 04:00 What I would just emphasize is that this disorganized network that existed before was really doing more than anyone realized and it was doing a lot of work in a very distributed sense. So you might have, I'm a restaurant owner in mission Valley helping someone out, um, with just a quick meal. Um, you might have folks even in, you know, more far-flung areas like Claremont who might see that there are a handful of, of homeless individuals that are, you know, hanging out in the park and are giving them food. That sort of stuff isn't happening. And so even as the city is opening up the convention center, um, and father Joe's and other groups are rallying to continue to provide services, this is a real loss that's having very real impacts on people. And one thing I would add too is that it's now even harder than usual to get into shelters. One gentleman had told me last week that he has been trying for three weeks to get into a shelter. Even as a lot of the existing shelter clients are being moved into the convention center and shelters are trying to practice social distancing. It's just really hard for people to access shelter who want it right now. Speaker 1: 05:12 As you mentioned, many of the homeless who were sheltered at one of the city's bridge shelters were moved to the convention center. Do we know when they'll start accepting people off the streets into the shelters? Speaker 2: 05:23 It's not clear yet. Um, I was trying to get an update even just before I hopped on this call with you today. What they have said, um, the city has said is that initially they need to move all of these folks from various bridge shelters and other shelters, um, that the city funds into the convention center and then assess the capacity for unsheltered individuals. There may be an update on that as soon as this week. Speaker 1: 05:47 Okay. And food banks aren't able to meet the need because they don't provide prepared food. What did they say they need to do in order to be part of the solution? Speaker 2: 05:55 So both major food banks, the San Diego food bank and feeding San Diego told me that they would be willing to step up, but they would need to adjust their offerings a bit as you said. But what both really emphasized to me is that the key is they would need to partner with homeless service providers who have expertise on how to get that food out and who needs that food Speaker 1: 06:15 and how are churches and nonprofits and just well, meeting individuals trying to patch together a system to keep getting meals to homeless people. Many services are trying to ramp up efforts to reach the homeless where they are. Right? Speaker 2: 06:28 Yeah. So, uh, for example, voices of our city choir and the living water church of the Nazarene, uh, in East village have teamed up to try to provide, um, more frequent food distributions. And I know up in North County, some advocates are taking packaged meals from the O side kitchen collaborative to unsheltered people in the area. Um, and that kitchen is trained up at services. And I would imagine that this sort of thing is happening around the region as people become aware, but so much more help is needed and it's really difficult. Um, right now, even for people who want to help, you know, they acknowledge it's actually more difficult than ever to find some of the people in need because as parks shutdown, which you know, had often been a commonplace for a homeless individual to sleep or stay during the day, it's actually harder to find those individuals in need as well, even as their need grows. Speaker 1: 07:18 You interviewed a senior director at the San Diego hunger coalition. What's her idea about the homeless, uh, how they can get food quicker and more directly. Speaker 2: 07:26 She really emphasized that homeless San Diegans who do not now have CalFresh food stamps should try to seek them out. And she noted that the application process has been streamlined a bit now and the County family resource centers are actually taking applications outside. Um, so even an individual that doesn't have a cell phone could potentially go to one of these locations. Those who do have cell phones can call two, one, one to try to get signed up. Speaker 1: 07:52 All right, well we'll be looking for followup stories on this. It's a critical need in our community. I've been speaking with voice of San Diego report at Lisa Halverstadt. Thanks, Lisa. Speaker 2: 08:01 Thank you for having me.