Feeding San Diego News Release

On November 5, 2019, Feeding San Diego, announced the launch of MealConnect^TM in San Diego County. This free and innovative technology platform connects surplus food from restaurants and other food service providers to Feeding San Diego’s volunteer drivers and agency partners. Developed by Feeding America, MealConnect is an exciting new way for the community to divert good food from going to waste and increase the availability of nutritious food for the one in eight people facing hunger in San Diego County. Unlike other food rescue apps, MealConnect is free of charge for food donors.

The app enables food donors of all sizes, such as hotels, meeting and event planners, restaurants, farmers market vendors, and convenience stores to post surplus food to the system. Examples of this could be extra food from a caterer, a small load of meat from a butcher, or a box of tomatoes from a farmers’ market.

“The message for San Diego restaurants and other food providers is clear,” said Vince Hall, CEO of Feeding San Diego. “Feeding San Diego is your partner in hunger relief. We are minimizing waste and working to ensure that every person has enough nutritious food to eat.”

One in eight people in San Diego County face hunger, while 40% of all food produced is wasted. MealConnect will allow Feeding San Diego to engage the community in small scale rescue and delivery of high-quality food to those in need.

In addition to helping feed residents, reducing food waste positively impacts our environment. By diverting nearly 26 million pounds of food from the landfill last year, Feeding San Diego reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 23,020 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, which is comparable to taking 5,000 cars off the road for one year.

Feeding San Diego provides more than 26 million meals to people in need each year and 97 percent of the food distributed is rescued. Now with MealConnect, Feeding San Diego is well poised to continue ending hunger and increasing food rescue by engaging local restaurants and businesses in a simple, scalable solution.

Learn more about the app in the short video below.

This article was originally published as a Feeding San Diego News Release, read the full press release here: https://feedingsandiego.org/newsroom/news-releases/

To better understand the local food system in San Diego, the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors initiated the Live Well San Diego Food System Initiative to work towards a robust and resilient local food system that builds healthy communities, supports the economy and enhances the environment. Each year, the Initiative publishes the State of the Food System Report to guide the public and policy makers about the current state of the food system in our region and find the areas of opportunity to create change towards a better local food system.