San Diego Food Bank Estimates Nearly 1 Million County Residents Struggle With Food Insecurity

Speaker 1: 00:00 There was a recent report in the Washington post about an increase in shoplifting across the nation. But the items being stolen weren't Christmas presents or a luxury items, it was food retailers say more people are trying to steal food, staples like meat or peanut butter, even baby food, food relief organizations are in agreement that the pandemic and related unemployment are increasing the amount of food insecurity in the U S one estimate predicts 52 million Americans will be food insecure by the end of the year, that 17 million more than last year organizations like the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego food bank are trying to fill that need, but it's a race to keep up with the growing number of hungry people. Joining me is James Flores, president and CEO of the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego food bank. And welcome to Speaker 2: 00:53 Thanks so much for having me on. Speaker 1: 00:55 Can you tell us how the need for food assistance has increased in San Diego over the past? Speaker 2: 01:01 It's a, you know, we can't make this stuff up. I mean, we went from feeding 350,000 people a month to nearly 600,000 people. And it seemed like that happened over night by way of background. Uh, prior to the pandemic, we estimated about one in seven people in San Diego economy, that's about 450,000 people or term food insecure. I would be, it'd be safe to say that number is at least doubled. We may have a million people in San Diego County. They're not food insecure. Speaker 1: 01:31 And you must be seeing people then who've never been on a food distribution line before. Speaker 2: 01:35 Absolutely. I mean, you know, we have the people that working poor and seniors on a fixed income and living in poverty and reacting to the military that we were serving prior to the pandemic. But now there's a whole host of people. A lot of people in the hospitality, a lot of people in the service industry, so many people have been furloughed, who've been laid off and then it's been this rollercoaster for them because they go back, they get unemployment, then they get, they go back to work and then they get out and then they get laid off again. So then they lose their unemployment that they're reapply for unemployment. We have people have applied for unemployment, but they haven't gotten their money yet. Um, and then just now we're seeing white collar, uh, positions being laid off. So we're seeing our numbers rise, especially with the, in this last period of time. Speaker 1: 02:15 Now the term food insecurity really doesn't describe the worry and the real hunger that people are experiencing. What does it mean actually, to be food insecure, Speaker 2: 02:26 Not having a reliable source of food, not knowing where your next meal is coming from, uh, skipping meals, uh, parents who skipped meals, uh, so their children can eat. I mean, it's a wide variety of things, but it's basically, uh, there's two parts of that. One is not having enough food to feed your family, feed yourself, but then there's a whole other underlying dynamic that not a lot of people talk about. And it's about having nutritious food because sometimes people scamp, they can't afford to healthy food. So now they're buying, you know, the stuff they can afford, which lacks protein, fresh produce that type of thing. So now you start talking about poor health, obesity, diabetes, and you talking about poor academic outcomes for children. So it's not just about food, but it's about nutritious food. Speaker 1: 03:06 Remind us about what the food bank does. How do you get your food into your warehouse and how do you distribute it? Speaker 2: 03:12 Well, we are, uh, some people refer to us as the Costco of nonprofits. We do not, uh, actually prepare meals that something our non-profit partners would do. So we are a supply chain, uh, at its very best and we're really basically giving out grocery. So I bought food distributions. So prior to the pandemic, our distribution model, very solid, uh, we have 200 distributions that we conduct each month. Um, that's our staff, our trucks. What have you with partners in the community nonprofits or what have you? So we do that about 200 times a month. Uh, those locations are strategically located throughout San Diego County. And then perhaps maybe the best part, one of my favorite parts of the San Diego food bank, we partner with more than 500 nonprofit agencies. So pretty much for your listeners, if they know of a nonprofit that has a feeding program, more likely than not, they're getting the majority of their food from us. Speaker 2: 04:03 So that ranges from, you know, the big guys like salvation army and Catholic charities and Jewish family services, all the big agencies that we know are doing feeding programs down to church groups that have a food pantry and helping 25 or 50 families a week and everywhere in between. Now with the pandemic, although that's a distribution model was pretty solid. We saw that we needed to augment that because, um, it was still the, the lions were doubling and tripling and a lot of our distribution sites and our distribution sites for our partners. So we, uh, came up with phase three of our pandemic response and that's our super pantry program, which we, uh, what that is is we took 35 of our 500 nonprofits and we kind of supersize them and we made them into high volume, high frequency distribution sites at least three days a week. And they'd walk ups and drive ups. And we're pushing through a lot, a lot of food, uh, through those 35 sites and the other 465 agencies. And the other 200, uh, distributions are still fully functioning. And what have you, but these high velocity high, uh, quantity sites are strategically located in the greatest areas of need. Speaker 1: 05:07 Are you accepting in-person volunteers at the food bank? Speaker 2: 05:11 Absolutely. You know, we are part of the, or we're exempt from the executive order. So we've been on the job, uh, since day one and our volunteers are also exempt from that executive order. Volunteers are integral part of our supply chain. And so we have a lot of corporate groups that usually volunteered. Um, but obviously they all canceled, but we will put up the word asking for individuals to come and they heated our call. We're actually turning volunteers away. Many of the shifts are already full. Uh, we had to do social spacing. We had to change the size of the shifts from 40 to 20 people, but their social space in gloves, mass, all that sort of thing. So we have volunteers here at six days a week, four nights a week, just ask people to go to San Diego food bank.org, do all the necessary, uh, registration start looking for shifts. And even if they look, keep checking back, because we get cancellations all the time. So this is San Diego's way of really rallying around people in need. Speaker 1: 06:04 So if a person worried about feeding their family, we're tempted to lift some food from a store. What would you tell them the food bank could offer? Instead, Speaker 2: 06:13 They don't need to do that. That, uh, really there's plenty of food and there's a distribution near their home, near their name in their neighborhood where they can get the food they need with complete client dignity. And I would tell them their call to action is San Diego food bank.org backslash get help. There's no shame in asking. And that is the other thing we would message we want to get out is that there's no shame in asking. And we have people that maybe are reluctant. Maybe they're embarrassed. There's no embarrassment. This is what we're here for. This is what we signed up for. There's plenty of food for you and your family. Uh, in fact, we're doing a big distribution tomorrow just for hospitality and, um, and service workers that are out of, uh, out of work. So there's plenty of food. You don't need to shoplift, you know, just call on your local food bank and we'll help you. Speaker 1: 06:58 Where can people find out where food is being distributed? Speaker 2: 07:02 San Diego food bank.org backslash get help. We list all of our distribution sites, all of our super pantries. And we're also the regional diaper bank. And we've got about 50 diaper hubs throughout San Diego County as well. And for, you know, young families with the kids and they had two, uh, parents that were working now, they're both out of work and they've got young kids. Diapers are so expensive. We've distributed about 6 million diapers since the beginning of the pandemic. So Sandy and food bank.org backslash get help. And there's your call to action. There's plenty of food for everybody. Speaker 1: 07:32 Then I've been speaking with James Flores, president and CEO of the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego food bank. James. Thanks a lot. And thank you for what you're doing. Speaker 2: 07:41 Thank you very much. You know, we just tell everybody, stay calm together. We'll weather, the storm.