REGION — The San Diego Foundation, in partnership with the County of San Diego, awarded more than $5.5 million in grants to 43 community organizations to help San Diegans experiencing food insecurity by supporting localized, sustainable food production and distribution throughout the region.
“Our partnership with the County of San Diego invests in long-term solutions that benefit community health and our environment while empowering community choice and food sovereignty in low-income communities and communities with limited access to healthy foods,” said Mark Stuart, president and CEO of San Diego Foundation. “These grants recognize the depth and breadth of impact of our food system – whether it’s addressing food insecurity, improving nutrition or supporting local agriculture in our region.”
The County of San Diego funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to support the Community Food Grant Program. Funding priorities and goals were identified as part of community engagement sessions hosted by the foundation and the county last fall that included residents, business owners, nonprofit leaders and community organizers from across the many sectors that comprise the region’s food system.
In total, San Diego Foundation received 131 grant applications submitted by nonprofit organizations, schools and government and tribal agencies, totaling $21 million in funding requests.
“The County’s safety-net services reach one in every three San Diegan, helping ensure our community members have access to nutritious food, services and education,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hernandez, County of San Diego, Director of Public Health Services. “The incredible work of the organizations selected for this grant will help amplify the County’s food security efforts to equitably reach communities of color and low-income San Diegans.”
The 43 projects selected represent a wide breadth of nonprofit organizations in San Diego County, from grassroots, volunteer-led efforts to established countywide institutions. These projects provide regional and population-specific services to food-insecure seniors, students, Tribal communities, unsheltered, and refugee and immigrant residents of San Diego County.
The program focuses on efforts to strengthen and scale community-led strategies to address food and nutrition insecurity with local solutions that prioritize low-income and historically marginalized communities. The grantees represent a variety of projects, including community gardens, urban agriculture, food rescue and distribution, seed banking and technical assistance for local farmers, among other projects across the region.
Program awardees that serve North County include:
- ‘ataaxum Pomkwaan
- Botanical Community Development Initiatives
- Climate Science Alliance
- Coastal Roots Farm
- ECOLIFE Conservation
- Equation Collaborative
- Escondido Community Garden
- Fallbrook Food Pantry
- Feeding San Diego
- Garden 31 Community Initiative
- Heal The Earth
- ProduceGood
- San Diego Food System Alliance
