Reliving Her Family’s Struggles, Darshana Patel Delivers $4.5M For San Diego Food Security

India-West News Desk

SAN DIEGO, CA – Feeding San Diego has received $4.5 million in state funding for refrigeration trucks and additional storage space.

The funding, secured by CA Assemblymember Dr. Darshana Patel, is the largest single contribution from a state lawmaker in the organization’s 19-year history, CBS8 reported.

The money will not be used to buy food. It will instead help the organization increase its refrigerated storage capacity and transport rescued food from farms and packing houses to partner sites where it is distributed, the organization said.

It said it has access to a large amount of rescued food, particularly from farms and packing houses, but has limited refrigerated storage space.

The new trucks will also expand the organization’s warehouse capacity and allow it to deliver food directly to partner sites.

Patel said her decision to direct the funding toward food security was influenced by her childhood experience with economic hardship. Her father lost his job during the recessions of the 1980s, she said, and her family looked for ways to maintain food security.

Feeding San Diego distributed 43 million pounds of food last year and expects that figure to increase as changes to federal SNAP benefits affect who qualifies for assistance.

The organization serves about 200,000 people each month. It said that figure has surpassed peak pandemic levels and increased nearly 8.8 percent from a year earlier.