The Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation will be announcing its annual community grant recipients during a virtual ceremony on Wednesday.
The Nov. 17 event is being held in lieu of its traditional presentation during the Rancho Bernardo Community Thanksgiving Luncheon that for the second consecutive year has been canceled due to the pandemic.
The grants program is a way for the foundation to present tens of thousands of dollars to community groups and projects. Last November $60,000 was awarded in the form of community grants and an additional $20,000 distributed for COVID-related needs.
However, it also presented another special grant earlier this year to help local food banks.
RB Community Foundation Grants Chair Debbie Kurth said $20,000 was given to Feeding San Diego, earmarked to help residents in the Rancho Bernardo and Poway area who are financially struggling due to the pandemic.
“We were happy and proud to provide this support to our local area residents,” Kurth said. “Working with Feeding San Diego has been a great experience.”
Ali Colbran, Feeding San Diego’s director of development, said the money goes far in helping community members and the need is great. For example, over a three-month period (May through July) Feeding San Diego was able to provide 230,000 meals to locals in need via local food banks. These include the Community Food Connection in Poway, the Sikh Foundation in Poway and a food bank at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Rancho Peñasquitos.
Over the past year, Feeding San Diego has helped provide nearly 800,000 meals through these three sites alone, she said. Additional families were helped through its Together Tour distributions held countywide.
With Feeding San Diego able to turn every $1 it receives into two meals, Colbran said the Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation’s contribution is being used to provide 40,000 meals. She called it “critical support” as the community recovers from the pandemic’s impact.
“The need has absolutely increased since the pandemic,” Colbran said, noting that according to the San Diego Hunger Coalition, 1-in-3 people in the region are food insecure, which equates to more than 1 million. This includes more than 280,000 children.
“The need is a lot higher than it used to be and has persisted for quite awhile. (Need) has increased at all (food distribution) sites,” she said.
According to Colbran, before the pandemic Feeding San Diego was providing 27 million meals over a year, but since the pandemic that number has risen to more than 40 million.
Established in 2007, Feeding San Diego is the leading hunger-relief and food rescue organization in San Diego County and the only Feeding America affiliate in the region, according to Colbran.
“Our organization provides more than 40.3 million meals every year to children, families, seniors, college students, military families and veterans in partnership with a network of 320 local charities, schools, faith communities, meal sites and food pantries,” she said.
“Last year, more than 70 percent of the food provided to the community was rescued from local and national food donors,” she added. “By diverting high-quality food from the landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Feeding San Diego protects people and the planet.”
Those seeking resources can visit the “Find Food” map at feedingsandiego.org/find-food. Those in need can also register for the Together Tour’s free large-scale food distributions at feedingsandiego.org/together-tour. At these, each registered attendee receives about 50 pounds worth of dry goods, fresh produce and a frozen meat protein.
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Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation's $20K donation is helping feed locals in need - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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